Elizabeth and the Scarecrow
by JeffC FTW
Summary: Dr. Elizabeth Dodson has the infamous Scarecrow, Jonathan Crane, as one of her patients. Doctor and patient shouldn't fall in love, but this man protects her against those who threaten everything.
1. Analysis of Wedlock

**I bring you my first story of "Batman the Animated Series" combined with a little bit of "The New Batman Adventures", its sequel series. As a child, I was scared out of my wits by Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow, but as an adult, I've developed a rather insane case of attraction. XD This story is also slightly AU, also being a modern telling of "Beauty and the Beast", which I've loved as a child, and the main heroine of this story happens to love it as well. Elizabeth Dodson is a young doctor at Arkham Asylum and a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne - and a former psychology student of Professor Crane, whom she flirted with but never went beyond, until he was fired for his illegal experiments. Now she's his doctor at Arkham, and befriends some of the patients in the process whilst attempting to dodge the unwanted advances of Lyle Bolton, the new chief of security. Things get intense as her relationship with Crane develops beyond doctor and student.**

 **I don't know how many of you know this, but the voice of Dr. Crane in the show, Henry Polic II, passed away a couple years ago from cancer, and Vytina and I both mourned for him for awhile then. :( This story is dedicated to him, which I have seen as a rarity amongst fanfic writers and stories.**

 **Disclaimer: None of the content of BTAS and TNBA belongs to me, only my OC Elizabeth Dodson. :) No making money either. And thanks to my friends and fellow writers: nicsnort for helping with the psychology of the relationship , and Vytina for storyline inspiration overall.**

Chapter One

Analysis of Wedlock

This was Veronica Vreeland's fourth marriage, and for once, Elizabeth Dodson was hoping the fourth time was the charm. She was the hopeless romantic who wished marriage was as it was said it was supposed to be - a promise and binding of a man and woman staying true unto each other until death. Not divorce, ever. She was never married, and she hadn't had a boyfriend since college when she chose to put her career above her personal life.

Her friend from childhood, Bruce Wayne, had persuaded her to enter a dating match website, but in Elizabeth's opinion, there were hundreds of creeps out there posing as someone else. She had thought perhaps to just stay away from the opposite sex and just wait for the right time.

 _But_ when _is the right time?_ her mind whispered.

Attending weddings and charity fundraisers hosted by her best friend, as well as other parties her whole life since moving to Gotham hadn't changed her opinion. She'd landed a few dance partners but nothing beyond that. Maybe it was because of how...awkward she was around men. But there was one man in the whole world that made her feel like herself, whom she confided back in college before he was released by the Board of Directors regarding her ex-boyfriend.

The ceremony was opened and breezy, similar to a day on the beach, and Veronica as well as her new husband Michael were wed under a dark canopy draping with sheer white curtains fluttering in the wind. Architectural black vases of flourishes of white orchids were placed at all four corners of the canopy, taking the witnesses' breaths away, including Elizabeth; but not much as the bride herself. Veronica had her long flaming hair loose and catching the wind underneath her sheer gossamer veil glittering with some crystals all over; her dress had a form-fitting bodice with a halter neckline, lavished all over with bling, the skirt billowing shimmering satin. And from afar, as the rings were exchanged, you could still see the blink of the luxurious diamond ring which had knocked everyone off their feet upon first sight. Diamonds were a girl's best friend, but they were also too expected. If Elizabeth were ever married, she would imagine anything other than diamonds for herself.

The roaring of applause prompted her to join in. Veronica and Michael Vreeland - she didn't understand why he chose to go with his new bride's surname instead of his own, before deciding it didn't matter - were officially husband and wife. "Happy for her?" she asked her friend, who laughed.

"Of course I am, Lizzie." To this day, Bruce insisted on calling her by her childhood nickname, but then again, Harleen used to. Harleen was her best friend from childhood and ending in college when she got mixed up with the Joker. "Why wouldn't I be?"

She playfully punched his arm. "Because you're a little past thirty and still unmarried, Mr. Rich Boy," she teased. "You want to hurry and tie the knot before you get old and alone, no kids to pass down your legacy?"

Bruce's face fell. "You know me, Lizzie." He lowered his voice. "Remember Andrea?" _Oh, great, bringing up the past. But we all have exes in our past._

"Tim, Dick, Barbara, Alfred and I can't be all you have," she told him softly as she followed him and said others as well as the rest of the wedding party to cocktail hour, which was to the left side of Vreeland Manor - the ceremony had taken place to the right, surrounded by Nature - so the reception would be behind the estate. "Don't you at least want to try and find someone and settle down?"

He rolled his eyes. "And all of this is coming from someone who's not even considering marriage right now."

~o~

He hoped he didn't hurt her feelings, but Lizzie didn't look like it. She was not known to mask her sore feelings unless at work, as required. But marriage wasn't on Bruce Wayne's list, and she knew as well as Dick, Barbara and Tim. He found himself looking at some of the other attending wedding guests around him: Dr. Kirk Langstrom and his wife Francine, Dr. Steven Carlyle and his wife Pamela - formerly Poison Ivy, who had been released two years before - as well as Barbara's father, Commissioner Gordon, and Doctors Joan Leland and Bartholomew, the latter who was Lizzie's boss at Arkham Asylum. The commissioner and both doctors weren't married, but seeing the former couples before them, Bruce pondered.

The reception area to follow was under a white canopy suspended with a crystal chandelier over a white dancefloor placed there, the tables around long and set with tall white, billowing centerpieces. Veronica was the granddaughter of a renowned hunter besides being the daughter of an army general, but while her new husband was decent enough, he wasn't near her status of good money. This day was supposed to be the best of her life, after a year with Michael. Ronnie tried a few times to get them to be more than friends, but Bruce just couldn't let her in on his secret, also given the few times he was unable to return a call after a while. Their relationship was never more than just friendship; he just couldn't let them both live with complications, so with what Batman's time-consuming protection of the city did with his personal life.

So in answer to Lizzie's question, Bruce _was_ happy for her.

The bride and groom entered the area not long after, Veronica having changed into a slimmer, more figure-hugging dress resembling her original. The ritual was the groom getting the garter and tossing it into the crowd, whilst the bride tossed the bouquet. Bruce wound up getting the garter - he felt a little embarrassed, too - and he turned to see who had gotten the bouquet.

She was dressed in glittering black, with long gloves, her hair long and pale liquid gold. Bruce found himself staring into a pair of earthy green eyes. And for public use, he ended up getting his picture taken for the affair with her; he held up the garter while she held Ronnie's bouquet. As he stood close to her, Bruce could smell how serene she was; his senses felt like they were waking up thanks to velvety violets and pristine white peonies with soft cotton musk in the air.

"I hate these things," he told her when the cameras stopped flashing, finally lowering the garment.

She nodded in agreement. "Me, too. And with pantyhose, who needs them?"

Bruce flushed. _Well, a garter wasn't what I was thinking of. And she's right -_ He had to stop his train of thought there, because of how embarrassing it was. "Uh, I meant these big formal affairs." This was supposed to be Ronnie's day of happiness, not made into some big formal affair for the world to see; it was supposed to be the bond of two people who loved each other.

She laughed; she had such a sweet laugh too good for words. "I know what you meant. I was just trying to make you laugh." Now he allowed a smile to form. "Now that's it. You seemed so grim," she noted.

"I've heard that said before."

"Bruce!" Veronica was approaching with her new husband to her side. "I see you've met Susan."

He looked down at her in surprise. _Susan! How on earth did I forget to ask her name?_ "I have. And I forgot to tell you that you've made an excellent choice, Veronica," he told her. He had met Michael a few times on several occasions, and he and Ronnie had hit it off so fast. He liked to think of it as chemistry.

She was giggling and leaning into her husband, while grinning deviously at Bruce. "Maybe someday it will happen to _you_."

"Nah, you know me, Ronnie." First Lizzie, now her. Speaking of his other close friend, he looked over and saw her with Barbara at the refreshment table, Tim with them, and who knew where Dick went. Both girls wore the same dress with a silverwork row traveling from the hem to the left shoulder; Lizzie was in blue while Barbara was in black. Whatever Barbara was telling her, Bruce noted that it made her face fell. If Jim Gordon's daughter was attempting to persuade her to try and find a new guy, it wasn't working. Elizabeth had been through a lot in her life and didn't need another man hurting her again like back at GSU.

 **So, the events with the wedding of Veronica Vreeland and Bruce Wayne meeting Susan is all from the TNBA episode "Chemistry". For those who haven't seen it, it's where Batman eventually gets hitched along with Veronica and other wealthy citizens - but it turns out that their mates are plant-life creations involved with Poison Ivy's plot. But be happy to know I am making a happier ending for that. :D As I did with Pamela Isley unlike "House and Garden".**

 **This story overall will focus on happier endings like a fairytale should, while still staying true to the darker and original animated series. Next chapter will have Elizabeth at work and her background expanded a little. Reviews appreciated. :)**


	2. Weeping Willow

**I'm not bragging or forcing anyone to know me or anything, but I'm also a major fan of Jeffrey Combs (Scarecrow in TNBA), so I've done Re-Animator stories, too, if anyone is a huge fan of the franchise. :) This is also a nice departure, too, but I'm known to take small departures. Batman and Re-Animator are both specialties of mine.**

Chapter Two

Weeping Willow

 _Halloween was her favorite holiday, and she was looking forward to it - but then again, she wasn't. She and David had split last week because she'd caught him beginning to have sex with cheerleader Rita Otto in his dorm. Her heart was broken into thousands of pieces that Harley would have been here to help her, but she wasn't anymore. She had it in her to apply for an internship at Arkham Asylum only to fall madly in love - mad being the main key term - with a certain homicidal clown the Batman was notorious for taking on every now and then. Elizabeth was alone now, since her best friend and roommate was gone, and her first love betrayed her for a tramp who cheered the muscled men._

 _Bruce had been there for her, having been invited to the party as a special guest. Dr. Long was hosting it, and nearly all of the faculty and student body were invited, including herself. She looked around at the girls in their costumes ranging from sexy nurses, mythical figures like goddesses, nymphs and Gorgons, to the Disney princesses - and she would be the latest addition among them. Her costume was Belle's yellow ball gown, with the puffy off-shoulder sleeves and elbow gloves, the skirt poofy and fitting for a costume instead of a bride, if you asked her, and there was a customized brooch between the valley of the sweetheart neckline. Her long brown hair was held in a half-updo and set with a golden tiara of swirling ivy and vines, centered with a blazing red gem. Bruce had told her she looked like a princess, and she felt like one, too, but to know she was without a boyfriend...what had she done wrong that he would do this to her?_

 _All eyes turned on her and Bruce as soon as they entered the room. Gasps and coos sounded; she knew it was on her, the "date" of Bruce Wayne and one of the university's star students. But Elizabeth did not like having all the attention on her as much as she liked being around people. Dr. Long came up to greet them both; however, he wasn't exactly nice towards her oldest friend, whom he called a "self-centered jet-setting playboy" unlike his father whom Long attended college with. Her father, Nathan Dodson, had married Giselle Vincent, who had been a high school flame of Thomas Wayne before breaking up with him, then relocated down to Macon, Georgia. Thomas Wayne was a doctor at Gotham General, his former girlfriend choosing to marry another rich man and leaving this "scum-ridden city" only to end up getting more than she bargained for._

 _"Ah, Miss Dodson."_

 _She turned around with Bruce to see the very man she'd wanted to see in this mess. "Professor Crane. I didn't think you'd be here," she said. "I thought you hated these parties."_

 _He chuckled. "I received the invitation, but I considered making the excuse of feeling ill and unable to attend. Yet I never had it in me." His dark gaze then met with Bruce's. "Mr. Bruce Wayne, I presume?"_

 _"Bruce Wayne," he answered, shaking the man's hand. "And you are?"_

 _"Dr. Jonathan Crane, professor of subliminal psychology," her teacher answered proudly. "Elizabeth's instructor, and a specialist in fear and phobias."_

 _"And he's really wonderful, Bruce," Elizabeth spoke, thinking,_ Terrific. I made him blush. _Crane wasn't showing it in his expression, but she saw his pallid cheeks turn a faint shade of pink at her comment. And though not in front of Dr. Long or anyone else, she would tease him and flirt with him about anything other than class subjects, to which he would respond firmly but let loose the ghost of an amused smile. He never smiled to anyone, and it made her wonder how only she could make him do that._

 _Crane looked from her to Bruce, his method of preserving himself. "Mr. Wayne, despite me not inviting you myself, I thank you for coming. Your...friend has been through a rough patch recently. She could use it tonight."_

 _"You're right. Her boyfriend." Bruce looked down at her with a protective look in his eyes. When Elizabeth told him of David's unfaithfulness, he'd threatened to harm him if he ever hurt her again, which scared her. Bruce loved her like a sister, but if he actually got into a physical altercation, he'd be in trouble._

 _She felt nature calling to her and quickly excused herself from her friend and professor, the latter whom she had been to before she turned to Bruce about her ex. He'd allowed her to stay with him in his office after hours for a little while before curfew set up, comforting her and assuring her that his cheating was not her fault, and if he ever tried anything more, Crane would be there for her._

~o~

When she graduated from Gotham State, Elizabeth Isabelle Dodson didn't think that any institute in the state would accept her given what happened to her that Halloween five years back. But Arkham praised her brilliant record besides that, and Dr. Bartholomew who ran the place called her a "new bulb to light up this dreary place", which had made her laugh. She hadn't been expecting anyone to take her so serious the way he did, or the way she and Joan Leland ended up becoming great friends and coworkers so fast.

She even bonded with the patients from the start. Edward Nygma, also known as the Riddler, was among them. Elizabeth thought it unfair what happened between him and his old boss. Nygma was crazy with riddles, drove a lot of the staff and his fellow inmates crazy with his queries and games, but they made Elizabeth laugh. One of the nurses, Diane Osborne - a twenty-three-year-old graduate from Stanford who transferred to Arkham - who was under Elizabeth's watch now, was the other, and based on instinct, Elizabeth suspected there was more than the nurse administering medicine to the patient going on between the two. Nygma was on the verge of being released from Arkham in a few weeks, given good behavior and an offer from Charles Baxter, who ran the Wacko Toy Corporation.

Jervis Tetch - oh, what a sad story that was for him, and almost like her in some ways, suffering so much heartache in his life, so to lose the first girl of his dreams proved too much for his mental state.

And of course, there were Harleen Quinzelle and Pamela Isley - Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. The latter completed her rehabilitation a couple years ago, then settled down to marry her doctor, Steven Carlyle, and was now helping him raise his two kids from his drug addict ex-wife, eight-year-old son Chris and seven-year-old daughter Kelly. Pamela had never thought about being married with children herself, until she met Steven's children and melted. Elizabeth had been to their wedding during her internship, a small and intimate affair that focused on family and family only yet somehow made it to the headlines: **VIXEN OF VINES TIES THE KNOT**. Pamela had looked so sleek and ravishingly sexy for a woman who had just been let out of a mental asylum and into married life; her majestic figure had been showed off by spectacular chiffon and soft embellishments, the slit in the front giving her a bold statement. Everything about her had screamed to the world that she'd started in one place and was now who she was. The sad fact was, because of her hyper-immune system, she was unable to have little "sprouts" of her own, as she called them.

As she passed down the hallway where the patients were that morning, she received calls of good morning to her; sweetly, Elizabeth answered back. She remembered when she first came here as an intern a few years back, she thought of how perverse and malignant Arkham Asylum towered over her, like one of those castles in the Gothic stories she grew up reading as a child, but little things like that never scared her. It took more than just that to scare her out of her skin. Elizabeth walked through the front door and down the hallways, wearing a vivid blue denim-looking jacket zipping up the front but stopping halfway to show a soft yellow tank and her favorite butterfly and lily necklace from her grandmother, the matching skirt hugging and showing off her hips and flaring out slightly. Her boots were soft brown leather with short heels, and her long hair was sleek and naturally curled, tossed over both shoulders to cover her ears. Some of the male inmates emitted catcalls and whistles when they first saw her, but she ignored them and headed for Dr. Bartholomew's office first thing. He'd been delighted that she'd chosen to work full-time at Arkham and showed her to her office which was her favorite place to be compared to her few visits to solitary confinement regarding one of the others - a certain someone she valued in her life.

Now, five years later, Elizabeth entered her office, which mostly bore her long desk and posh swing-around chair, as well as a whole wall which had shelves of textbooks and some of her own liking - including some framed pictures of herself with Bruce and Alfred, her and Harley, one of her along with Dr. Bartholomew and Joan as well as her cherished patients...and the final of herself with the man who had been her favorite teacher and mentor. He'd encouraged her instead of told her she was just trying to get attention to get to the top.

She looked over to her far right to take her mind off the past. One of the few things she first brought with her to begin to personalize this office and make her feel more at home was a family heirloom she'd carted with her all the way from Georgia with her, a reminder of her mother who died six years ago. One of the most prized china patterns of all time, Blue Willow was inspired by a Chinese legend of forbidden love; a young woman left her ferocious father to be with the man she loved, a commoner. In order to escape was the hard way, and that was them becoming a beautiful pair of white doves. In this classic pattern, you see the young lovers flying high above the willow tree where they first pledged their love. Said pattern had been recaptured on porcelain butterflies set with glass jewels; blossoms were also hand-crafted onto silvery metal stems, all of it resting on a mahogany base. Elizabeth smiled as she gazed at the delicate, nine-inch masterpiece near the edge of her desk but not enough for someone to knock it over.

As a child, Elizabeth loved butterflies. They were graceful, elegant, and carefree, flying dreamily and full of life and happiness; as she grew older, she'd come to understand that there was more to these flighty, fluffy creatures. They were emblems of transformation because of their processes of metamorphosis – all life was soulful, time, surrender, vulnerability, resurrection, and ultimately celebration.

Another treasured possession was the previously mentioned pendant she always wore around her neck, that silver heart featuring a lily and a gold butterfly. A diamond glittered at the center of the flower, and engraved on the back was the sentimental quote: _Believe in the beauty of your dreams._ From her grandmother before she died.

Another sad fact, Elizabeth had always kept her head down and worked hard, but in the midst of becoming a psychiatrist, her head was always in the clouds, fantasizing as any young girl would. Always reading romance, history, horror and mystery and so forth. Always into books as well as helping people get their lives back, help them clean the messes in their minds up even if it was impossible...but her passions had cost her love life. At twenty-five years old - she'd skipped a grade back in high school and graduated early - since her attack, Elizabeth gave up on finding a special someone thanks to David. Might as well end up like Bruce, if not in the playboy sense:

Unmarried and alone. She wanted to cry as a result.

The door buzzed, telling her that her patient had arrived. "Come in."

The door opened and in shoved was the man of the hour, though his sweet face was fallen as soon as wide blue eyes met her soft brown ones. "Why, Jervis, are you well?" Unlike most doctors in Arkham - save for Joan and Bartholomew - Elizabeth truly cared about the patients' well-being, even if they were the most hardened of scum. But this one was nowhere near scum; he was just a lost, misunderstood soul, and she knew it. Crazy with one particular story, mind control and gadgets, but mad? _Not in my book, but we have to prove it._ She stood up from her desk and walked around to take him by the arm and lead him over to sit in the chair before her desk.

"Oh, I'm perfectly fine, gracious," he answered, folding his hands nervously in his lap. "I just so happened to accidentally...pass by the Dormouse and his woman while they were alone in the..." He stopped himself, looking down at the ground, cheeks turning pink with embarrassment, but Elizabeth knew what he was trying to say.

"Oh, they were at it, weren't they?"

"Mm-mhm." He nodded numbly. "I can't go into the details. I was afraid someone else would see and report, if not myself. Nurse Diane might get kicked out, and who knows about Edward. He could have his upcoming parole revoked -" He was starting to panic now, but Elizabeth knelt down beside him and placed her hand on top of his, which was gripping the armrest so tight his knuckles whitened and the back of his hand started to shine with sweat.

"Don't worry, Jervis; it will be our little secret." _I don't think he'll be able to look at Edward for awhile, after whatever how much he saw._

He looked up at her then, and this time she was shocked by his soft blues glistening with tears. "But it brought to mind _her_."

She knew who he was talking about. "Your secretary."

"I'd have thought she'd grown to love me as I loved her, but no, she chose the boor of a beau whom she suffered many misfortunes with. It was always I who welcomed her whenever her days were darkened, but she chose him. I never understood why, but I don't believe I'll ever be lucky again. I've lived my whole miserable life alone, might as well die old and alone."

He looked like he was going to cry for sure, unsure of how much longer he could keep the tears from pouring, and Elizabeth's heart broke there on the spot. She gathered the Kleenex from the corner of her desk and walked around with the whole box. "Shh, it's okay. I'm sure there's someone else out there for you. There's always plenty of fish in the sea. It's her loss, not yours." _He feels the way I do; our first and only loves betrayed us both. But Batman interfered when Jervis kidnapped her only to impress her and get her to fall for him. Mine was worse than that._

Jervis looked up at her with reddened eyes as he blew his nose. "I feel like you understand me more, Elizabeth. You loved someone once and lost them, too." Sharing personal information wasn't tolerated, but Jervis was an exception like _him,_ because they were so much alike. She took great care in reading his signs, seeing only the admiration of a patient looking up to a superior doctor and longing to be treated as a human being instead of as a medical case. The same way she knew _she_ looked up to _him_ when he came to her that Halloween five years ago.

 **The necklace she wears as well as the engraving on the back are inspired exactly after a real-life butterfly and lily necklace, as is the butterfly Blue Willow sculpture. I thought they were perfect enough as to what kind of person Elizabeth is. :) I'm a bit of a bookworm myself, just like her, so I kinda wrote a bit of myself in her.**

 **This story was also half-inspired by two of my favorite stories, "Method to Our Madness" by** **A'isha Ishtar and "The Bookworm and the Beast" by nicsnort. Thanks to you both. :)**


	3. Group Therapy

Chapter Three

Group Therapy

Group therapy was among the Rogues' least favorite events; they were known to get everyone's minds out into the open, to get to know each other and voice their opinions, but for the Rogues in particular, it was a form of what they called "social degradation". You know, placed under the limelight and trapped because you had no choice but to perform. Jonathan Crane never knew what it was like, given he was a master in the field of psychology, until he was caught and placed in with the others.

 _Our secrets are best kept amongst ourselves, and shared amongst each other when we deem the time is right and whether or not we trust the person we are telling._ Thankfully one such soul cared to understand that, and he taught her well.

She couldn't have come in at perfect timing when Leland was just finishing up hearing Harley Quinn's latest story with her "Mistah J" after she was brought back in last night, though Joker managed to sneak away for some time off. Crane seethed; everyone in the Gallery despised the clown with every fiber of their beings, and it was no secret. Who didn't admire the Joker but his other former student in particular? Isley had tried but ended in vain with attempting to get her only best friend and sometimes partner-in-crime live without the abusive clown.

"Aww, but Doctah Lee, I was just getting to the good part -!" Quinn whined, getting groans from everyone in the small circle; missing was Pamela definitely, who had gone and married her therapist after leaving.

"Later, Harleen. Right now, Dr. Dodson has something she wants to share," Joan said gently. Tetch had come in after his session with Elizabeth, apparently bawling about his destroyed love life. When his therapist took her seat, smoothing out her smooth blue skirt next to Leland, Jervis seated himself between Crane and Nygma, whose release papers would be drawn in a matter of weeks and he, too, would be free to go. The Rogues Gallery was lessening every day as it was.

"Lizzie, oh you came!" Harley piped, almost jumping up but getting another look from Leland. "I tried to tell Doctah Lee here, but -"

"Harley, you can finish _later_."

Elizabeth held her hand up. "No, Joan, I can handle this. Whatever is it, Harl?"

"I think maybe Mistah J might have someone else behind my back, but he won't tell me. Like now, again he didn't even come back with me. He has a woman on the side because he's been ignoring me trying to get him..."

"Oh, God, women and their techniques," Crane heard Scarface the puppet groan, and he couldn't agree more. But then Tetch leaned in and whispered to him.

"Oh, dear Harley is too good for that. Surely you agree."

Jonathan nodded. "Certainly." _No woman for me ever since Sherry Squires, although..._ He paused when he found himself making eye contact with his other star pupil back when he was still her and Miss Quinzelle's professor. Elizabeth with her tall, pear-shaped figure and ivory skin, doe-brown hair and matching eyes; if one had a bigger brain, they would have easily identified her as Belle from _Beauty and the Beast_. It was exactly how he saw her on the very first day they met, years ago when she had just turned seventeen years old.

~o~

 _"Excuse me, Professor?"_

 _He looked up with a raised eyebrow - instantly he straightened himself. Soft chocolate-colored eyes peered into his very dark ones which had been called "Satan's eyes" in his younger days. Exploring her face further, she had a heart-shaped mask set with narrow eyebrows, a slim, straight nose above small, full pink lips. Further down, she was in a soft misty pink blouse with fluttering lace sleeves and tight antique jeans. Her hair was long and medium brown, curled expertly and cascading in a waterfall over one shoulder. Crane thought she was...pleasing, the most appropriate word he could conjure without bordering on inappropriate._

 _"What can I do for you, Miss..?" he started._

 _"Dodson. Elizabeth Dodson. I'll be in your class, and I wanted to come and introduce myself," she answered. Her smile was thoroughly delightful, setting something in his system to life. He wasn't sure how he was feeling, but he paid it no mind and instead focused on her._

 _"Well, fancy meeting you." He held his hand out and accepted her hand, noting how firm hers was as his own was. Crane immediately spotted how young she appeared. "If I must say, you look quite young for a freshman."_

 _Elizabeth was still smiling, as if nothing negative in the world mattered to her or him, or anyone else around them. "I just turned seventeen yesterday. I skipped a grade in high school and graduated early. I might graduate by the time I'm twenty-four."_

Impressive, _he thought, and it must have shown on his face. "In that case, I look forward to having you in my class, Miss Dodson. And I wish you the best of luck."_

 _"Lizzie!" Both turned their heads at the sight of the high-spirited blonde with two pigtails in her hair, dressed in a sunset-themed shirt and embroidered denims compared to her friend, now that Jonathan was certain they were. "Oh, goodie, you got started with the introductions without me," the blonde girl pouted; her eyes were wide and blue as the skies, always opened for anything to pass. Then her hand bolted in front of his eyes when he didn't see it coming. "Professor Crane, I'm Harleen Quinzelle, but call me Harley. Everyone does." She winked to her brunette friend who rolled her eyes despite smiling. Jonathan smirked at her and then back to Miss Quinzelle, knowing it was going to be interesting indeed to get to know them both._

~o~

"What's a piece of music going to do with us today?" Harvey Dent had grumbled; he was in a sour mood today when the "white coats" tried their infamous prying. Jonathan had been caught up in the flash of first meeting the girls when Elizabeth answered him.

"Nothing much, just to make you all feel better," she answered sweetly, getting up and pulling out the CD case she kept in her lab coat pocket. She walked over to the player in the corner of the room and placed it inside, pushing "play", and a delectable blend of country and rock guitar filled the air, along with a soulful female voice.

 _He said, "I've been where you've been before,_

 _down every hallway's a slamming door._

 _No way out, no one to come and save me,_

 _wasting a life that the good Lord gave me._

 _Then somebody said what I'm saying to you;_

 _open my eyes and told me the truth._

 _They said, 'just a little faith; it'll all get better.'_

 _So I followed that preacher man_

 _down to the river and now I'm changed -_

She had been dancing to it, moving her mouth along some lines and making everyone laugh, before she gaped at them and motioned for them to stand up. "Well, what are you all waiting for? Stand up and have a good time after such a bad day!" She was namely speaking of Dent, who managed a crooked grin and awkwardly stood with the others, and Harley squealed when she ran over to Jervis who stumbled in his attempts to adjust to her abrupt partnering with him.

 _There must've been something in the water_

 _Oh, there must've been something in the water_

Jonathan didn't fancy the religious aspect of the song, obviously, regardless of the redemption theme. His grandmother had been a religious zealot, and her dead body rotting in the ground ought to have put an end to the introduction of Christian music to him just like that. Elizabeth ought to know better, but she was a doctor who knew the message behind the lyrics was about an individual's life changing after being "saved". _Like these other mindless fools think they can save us by breaking us_. He laughed it off.

 _Well, I heard what he said and I went on my way,_

 _Didn't think about it for a couple of days._

 _Then it hit me like a lightning late one night_

 _I was all out of hope and all out of light_

 _Couldn't fight back the tears, so I fell on my knees_

 _saying, "God, if you're there come and rescue me."_

 _Felt love pouring down from above,_

 _got washed in the water, washed in the blood_

 _and now I'm changed, and now I'm stronger._

"Oh, Jonathan, come and dance."

He scowled up at her. "I don't dance to this nonsense of music, and you know it."

Elizabeth put her hands on her hips. "It's only a song to make you feel better, remember? Nothing sort of religious except for the person who is, but I know you better than that."

"Honestly, you want to further humiliate me." No matter how hard anyone would pressure him, he would not bend.

"Jonathan Crane, if you don't dance with me, then I won't allow you the privilege of having lunch with me in my office every Friday from now on. Or access to books." Oh, now she was making petty threats? But he knew her well enough to know she followed through as much as he would. Huffing, Crane complied and let her drag him in with the others for the rest of the song.

~o~

 _Poor Jonathan,_ Elizabeth thought as everyone was escorted back to their cells for the day, but Jervis was waiting for her and hurried to catch up with her. The guard moved to take him, but she waved him off and volunteered to take him back with her. "What can I do for you, Jervis?" she asked. "Our session is finished until next week."

"I know," he answered, "but I think I might..." He stopped right there, looking down at the floor as he would when embarrassed. She probed him gently, putting her hand on his shoulder as they followed the others to their cells. "I think I like Miss Quinn. But I'm afraid she won't like me in return."

Elizabeth furrowed her brows. _He - Jervis has a...crush on Harley?_ She had to admit she was taken aback. She never thought he would shift his attention to another girl who wasn't Alice Pleasance, but when did this happen? And what brought this on? _And this is my best friend, who happens to love a certain psychopathic clown despite his mistreatment of her. Harley deserves better than that._ "Jervis, how long...?"

He shrugged noncommittally. "I'm not sure. It came to light just like that. She's always been so good to me, but the clown scares me."

Elizabeth nodded and rubbed his shoulder. "I don't blame you." They came to his cell finally, which was on the other side of Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow - and between him and Harley Quinn. "We'll talk more about this at our next appointment."

 **The song is "Something in the Water", by Carrie Underwood. :) Now it begs the question as to how Lizzie helps poor Jervis out.**

 **I thought I should clear this up in case anyone is wondering: Harley is a year older than Elizabeth.**


	4. Don't Mess With Me

Chapter Four

"Don't Mess With Me"

He hadn't seen Susan Maguire in a month since Veronica's wedding. For some reason, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about her since then. It had been a long time since he...felt something. He paused there, blinking. _Wait, what? I feel fuzzy when I think of Susan, but I barely know her. Yet she's so...beautiful and interesting. She made me smile that day._ And that was all it took.

It was impossible for him to begin to have feelings for a woman, especially after Andrea. His first and only he would have traded his life as Batman for, only to find out about her vengeful crusade against the Valestra mob who ordered her father's death - namely the Joker, who was the last survivor. The only item he possessed of her was the locket of the two of them during happy times before their future was destroyed.

 _We were supposed to be married before this. None of it should have happened._

He'd been a younger man then, and youth misguided you in the early stages. Bruce had convinced himself after that there would be no more women as long as he was trying to clean up the city.

There had been a few more, if on-off and combined with love and hate. Selina Kyle had a thing for Batman but loathed Bruce Wayne. And there was Talia, daughter of his most powerful, other-side-of-the-ocean rival, and she could handle his duality. But in the end, she would always choose her father.

Some years ago when he and Elizabeth were younger than they were now, when she and her father lived in Gotham for a while before her mother died, he'd had a crush on her, but it was nothing more than that because of his father's relationship with her mother before she ran off to marry another when they went their separate ways. Thomas never told him of this as a boy, given he was too young then, before Alfred told him when he was old enough to understand. It was after Elizabeth graduated high school herself and got into GSU did her father return to Georgia and they never spoke again. But she and Bruce never went beyond the line of friendship, like Veronica.

But then _Susan_ walked into his life.

Since the wedding, his thoughts were clouded with nothing but her, each time he and Tim would be out there, and tonight he found himself on a rooftop two buildings away from where she lived. Alfred found the address for him, good old Alfred. Holding up the binoculars to his eyes, he saw her on her balcony, watering her roses. Swirling into a longer-range focus, Batman saw that they were a very beautiful lavender color, almost matching her long silk-looking robe. He wasn't sure, but the sight of her doing something simple as caring for her flowers at this time of night was irresistible. For the moment, and for awhile longer after that, he forgot about anything else important in the world other than the decision to call her tomorrow and ask for a date time.

~o~

Elizabeth really needed a drink at this time, but alcohol on the job wasn't tolerable. Not even tea would help, despite Jervis' suggestion; now she knew exactly how he felt when he caught those two getting it on in the broom closet. The door had been left ajar by one of them by accident. All it took for her to pass by upon hearing those noises and close the door for whoever it was behind that door so no one else heard - she'd seen _Edward Nygma_ and Nurse Diane Osborne, the former with his pants down to show what she should NEVER have seen, as well as the obvious fact that the nurse was clearly having no underwear on even before then...

Elizabeth turned her eyes downward then and quickly but quietly closed the door to quiet down the cries before making way to her office in time for Jervis. A week later exactly, and they had Harley to discuss.

"Your friend is quite enchanting, no doubt about that," he told her. She chose not to write any of this down because his personal feelings about a fellow patient were no one's business to know. "She loves to hear about _Wonderland,_ never gets tired of it and agreeing to my invitation to tea, but those times are only when the Joker is not around. Even if he IS here at Arkham, and he would..." His lips quivered along with his whole body. "...he would roar at me to keep away from 'his' Harley, and I often ask myself why and how she tolerated his dominant nature. Oh, Elizabeth, the fright! If only she would stop running back into his arms all the time! Miss Isley was right all those times, but Harley never listened."

She sighed and put her pen down; she'd held its writing tip on the unwritten section of her notes purely out of habit the whole time she listened to his confession. Jervis clearly had more than a simple crush on Harley, but he was afraid of rejection like Alice Pleasance had done to him. He was too good for a "second time around". "She never listened to me, either." She cracked a small grin then. "But remember she said her puddin' might have another broad with her back turned?"

Jervis perked up at the possibility. "Oh, but if he does, then she might move away from that clown," he said joyfully, though short-lasting as it was. "But suspicions don't mean anything." _Oh, that's right. Harley thinks but doesn't know for sure, and neither do I._

"But if it's true, and it might mean the end of their relationship," Elizabeth said, her tactic coming to light, "you should find it in you to start being by her side as a friend first, and whenever the time is right, be bold and daring and tell her how you feel. But don't use the method of Wonderland like before. It's a real human being, not just a story book, but that decision might also be hers in case I'm mistaken. I know Harley well enough to know she wants a man who loves her for who she is and not for who he wants her to be. She might be the one you should have had all along; she's the medicine you deserve to take and cure your ailment of misery."

He didn't say anything, although he looked like he was about to - she faintly saw the incoming tears at her encouragement - when the door was knocked on. "Come in," she called. However, as soon as the door opened and closed, there was a very large brute who stood about six-foot-three in her office, and the moment Jervis saw him, he quivered and shrunk lower into his seat as though wanting to get away from this new, menacing face.

"Oh, dear..." was all he could get out, and Elizabeth thought he wouldn't make it through as long as she was behind her desk and he was caught in the middle. She stood and hurried around, helping Jervis stand up. He scurried behind her like a frightened child.

"Dr. Dodson." The man was dark-haired, his mane slicked and cut to army style, his build quite large compared to those said military men. His eyes were beady and black, meaner than Scarecrow's were said to be. But her former mentor's gaze intimidated her no more than this one's did. "Lyle Bolton, the new chief of security. I'm sure Doc Bartholomew told you I would be coming in today?"

 _So this one replaces Kidd after the incident with Joker two weeks ago._ "He did not, which tells me you chose to come here on your own," Elizabeth said calmly. She caught the way he was looking her over, and she felt like she had back in college.

"Because I heard some of the inmates, especially the soon-to-be released Riddler and the good professor of fear about a good-looking doctor who cuddles them with 'mommy love'." His mouth split into a grin which tugged her spinal cord's nerves. Then his gaze traveled to her patient behind her; was this how Jonathan and Edward reacted around this guy? "Well, well, well, the Mad Hatter. Scared as a little girl with a doll scared of shadows. That's how those two were when I paid them visits."

The image of the Puzzle Master and the God of Fear cowering before this beast made Elizabeth very angry. "I won't interfere with whatever methods you plan to do with our patients," she said savagely, thinking otherwise, "but should I find one trace of extreme behavior, you will find I'm not someone you ought to mess with. These people might be monsters to the world, but it's my job to ensure their health and safety as long as they remain within these walls. Now, if you don't mind, since we've had our introductions -" She nodded to the door behind him. "- the door awaits your exit."

His eyes narrowed and his jaw tightened at being deterred. "Fine, Doc. I only came to introduce myself and nothing more anyways." Then that smile returned. "But I think we might be seeing each other every often."

"Just go," she ordered, and once he was indeed gone, she heaved a sigh of relief only to have arms wrapped around her and blubbers of words.

"Oh, dear God, h-h-he's the J-J-J-Jabberwocky c-come to life!"

"Oh, ssshh," she said gently, turning around and taking Jervis into her arms reassuringly. "It'll be fine; the Jabberwocky himself won't lay his claws on you and the others without my say so." Sadly, she was lying both to him and herself; she doubted he would be spared from whatever this new Bolton character planned on doing to poor Jervis, Jonathan and the others.

 _Especially Jonathan. God, please watch over them if I am defenseless._

 **In comes Lock-Up himself. I always hated Bolton with a passion, read some other fics as to what brutalities he may have inflicted on the inmates while he was security chief, and it certainly wasn't pretty. He was a baddie we all LOVED to hate, and that's why I brought him in as an eventual match against our heroine and her patient-friends.**


	5. The New Security Chief

Chapter Five

The New Security Chief

"Honestly, Jon, did you see the way he was looking at us?" Nygma asked at rec time, looking up from one of his many crossword puzzles. Crane looked up from the dated psychology magazine and frowned as well as furrowed his brows.

"Of course. Do me a favor and _don't_ ask me if he scared me. _Nothing_ scares the _Master of Fear_." _Liar. He gives me the shivers, but no one can know but me._ What made it worse was the manner in which he asked for Elizabeth, and his threats of first day punishment if neither answered, and Jonathan was unwilling to speak about the girl he was fond of protecting ever since her attack, so Edward did it for him. Nygma, however, was as hesitant as he was.

And persistent, too. "You're lying, and I know you well, Jon."

He growled in frustration and raised his eyes back up. "I'm so glad you noticed," he said sarcastically. "And since you _know_ me so well, would you care to give an assumption as to what the new chief wants of Elizabeth?"

Edward shrugged casually. "You know how men like that are," he said with even the subtlest of hints behind the meaning. "Need I say more?"

Crane sighed and closed the magazine, tossing it back to its companions. _Oh, obviously enough. Men like Bolton who spend more time inside walls like these and limited female contact...dear goodness in all things terrifying._ "Edward, of course not. I know the type myself, believe me. The moment he lays his eyes on her, Elizabeth is doomed. She can take care of herself now, but what if he overpowers her like she was all those years ago? I saved her even though the act wasn't finished. She was still scarred by then, and Bolton won't do the same now."

Suddenly, a dark shadow loomed over them both, making Jonathan jerk his head up and gulp, losing his pride and courage altogether. He didn't even look behind him to know Edward had dropped his puzzle and pencil.

"Say...you gentlemen wouldn't happen to be talking about little ol' me now, would you?"

~o~

Glad her day was over, Elizabeth was getting on her motorcycle - she was a bit reckless admittedly, and Bruce was always lecturing her about being careful with these things when he was known to get on them himself - and putting her helmet on. _That Bolton, I swear he scares me more than Joker._ And then she heard her mobile ringing. It was Bruce; perfect timing, because she was planning on calling him about this new chief of security, whom Bartholomew had spilled the beans on as to who really hired him.

"Would you mind explaining that creepy new chief of security?" The memory of Lyle Bolton's overbearing physical appearance returned with the flash of a camera taking a picture, imprinting on her mind permanently.

Bruce laughed on the other end. _"Well, that's one way to say hi after work. And I got great news."_

 _Perfect, I can use some._ "Well, it can wait first. What do you really know about this Lyle Bolton?" Elizabeth looked around her to make sure he was nowhere around. Not even a hint of a shadow, either.

 _"What do you want to know exactly? I thought your boss told you everything."_

"The fact you hired him in replacement of Don Kidd because Joker slit his throat was due to his 'knowledge of high-tech security systems', and on a grant from the Wayne Foundation, of course," Elizabeth answered smoothly. "Really, Bruce, what else is known about him other than that?"

She could picture him shrugging. _"Never married, only child, and both parents dead. Is that all or more?"_ His tone then turned to serious. _"Lizzie, are you running a background check or something? Is that why you're asking me this?"_

"He just gives me the creeps, that's all."

He laughed again. _"Well, he would do the same to the inmates, but I'm sure he'll only do his best to keep the systems operable, prevent anymore inmates from getting out of there. You don't have to worry about a thing, Lizzie. Not even him trying to make a move on you. Guards don't just make moves on young, sexy physicians after all,"_ he joked, but she managed only the ghost of a laugh. She didn't find it funny at all.

"Okay, I'm ready for the good news."

 _"Excellent! I've asked Susan out, and we're going out tonight. I keep meaning to tell you, but I've been so busy. It's the first I've had in a long time."_

Now Elizabeth felt like smiling. "Something serious, I think. Except this might be short-lived like the others," she reminded him, getting a scoff.

 _"I hope not. I mean, Susan makes me feel...I don't know how to explain it. But it feels great."_

Elizabeth started her cycle. "I'd love to hear more, Bruce, but I'm riding home now. Dangerous to talk and ride, remember?" Hanging up and securing her helmet to her head, the thrill running through her system with both excitement and danger ahead, Elizabeth shoved Lyle Bolton out of her mind for the rest of the ride home.

When she got home in Old Town, she ran into no form of trouble on the way. When you're on a motorcycle, how can you get jacked if you're traveling with speed? Her apartment was on security alert thanks to Bruce, but the first time he installed it, she'd refused to accept it, saying that she could handle any trouble, but he had been overbearing ever since the incident that Halloween five years ago. But it had happened once; why would it happen again? _Here in Gotham, no one was safe even if they say they can handle themselves._

Elizabeth's apartment was soft and neutral, nothing over-the-top, though Bruce helped her get settled in as soon as she graduated and got her own place which wasn't the dorm she shared with Harley at GSU. Her furniture pieces - everything from the carved, curved coffee table, the end tables on either side of the beige suede couch and the one against the wall next to her apartment door where she stored her keys and mail, were of historical splendor for a grand statement. The golden tray with the crystal teapot set were a gift from her father on her birthday three years ago, but she never went down to Macon to visit him then, nor did he come to see her. They barely spoke anymore since she got into Gotham State and he moved back to Macon.

What mattered most was the mahogany bookcase shelved with rows upon rows of books, and among them were the psychology textbooks from college years, but right now she didn't feel like any touch of reality after today. There was one in particular she would always sneak into out of everything else she fancied, which paralleled to herself and a certain former professor of hers whom she looked up to like a father figure and...something more. She'd chastised herself for it because she'd already had a boyfriend, before his unfaithfulness made her call it quits. Her infatuation with Professor Crane increased by the time IT happened.

~o~

 _Elizabeth checked herself in the mirror one last time to make sure her hair wasn't messed up; her face was the least of her worries because her makeup was limited save for pinched cheeks and applied rosy pink lipstick she never wore save for special occasions. She was more than ready to return to the party, but the sooner she was out the door and walking down the hallway, picking up her skirt, a buzz happened so fast that she found herself snatched and pinned to the wall. Looking up and seeing who her raider was._

 _"David, let me go!" A slap to her face silenced her as well as the hand placed over her mouth, hot breath hissing at her, warning her to keep quiet so no one was attracted. They were in the middle of the claustrophobic hallway when she was unexpectedly cornered by her ex-boyfriend; she could smell the beer on his breath. He'd been drinking and therefore lost it, decided to take revenge against her now. She should have expected it, but not all couples split so easily._

 _She shrieked against his hand when she looked down and saw him unzip his pants and then went to the button, closing her eyes right away when he pulled himself out. This wasn't right; this wasn't how it was supposed to be. She had so far saved herself for marriage, or at least when the first time was supposed to be special. David had become a sexual monster she no longer knew. "Yeah, little girl is finally going to get what she should have...and it's for being the abandoning bitch that she really is!"_

 _Elizabeth wailed and howled like a wounded animal when he penetrated her, the pain worse than anything she'd ever felt. Blood didn't fall yet, but it would eventually. He'd managed to shove her skirts up all the way and entered her just as easily._ Oh, God, no...he's in me...but not in - _A sudden jab interrupted her thought, hurting her cervix bad that she was sure would get infected. David didn't seem to care any longer, in his drunken rapist state, that she screamed and may or may not have someone coming to her rescue, just growled like a wild beast as he enjoyed being inside her for the first time as she should have given him months ago -_

 _"Get away from her!"_

 _She yelped when he pulled out of her, letting her drop to the floor, the pain in her pelvis so unbearable that she wanted to curl into a ball and die that way. "Bruce...Professor," she uttered, gasping as she tried to get up despite her thoughts. Her friend was shell-shocked, and her professor the same - the same dark raging fire matching in their eyes - but the latter ran over to her side and helped her while Bruce rushed over and punched David square in the jaw; his nose was bloodied and some dribbling from the corner of his mouth. Elizabeth felt elated that he didn't finish his release in her, but the pain of her virginity roughly taken against her will made her draw up her skirts despite both men of her life in the area - when she did, she saw the thin river of red blood down her inner right leg, where it paused and ended at her thigh junction and dripped before continuing in a new stream._

 _Jonathan Crane desperately held her close as he yelled over to Bruce, "I'm getting her to the hospital ward!" She barely acknowledged what Bruce said before he started yelling for the police to be contacted right away._

~o~

She'd been in the hospital for three days, recovering physically, but mentally always took a little more time. Bruce had been by her side as often as he could spare, but then he would leave her when the city needed him.

And the one who was beside her full-time was none other than Professor Crane. He'd overseen her mental evaluation with permission from Dr. Long, even when no one was looking, holding her hand in his and calling her the pet name of "child" whilst assuring her that he would never let David or anyone else touch her again. And he kept his word.

Charges were filed on David, but he was still let go because of his parents who were members of the Board of Directors. Elizabeth regretted ever being with him, because she was so young and naïve, so in love with the captain of the football team. Twenty years old and a bookworm, she'd been in the clouds too long to notice the warning signs in time - or were there ever any? Professor Crane had warned her about his type time and time again whenever he saw her and David together, and she should have listened to him. She was so lucky he forgave her so easily, or their relationship as professor and student from then on would have been the level of strangers.

His revenge on both David and Rita Otto, however, had cost his position and his career - as well as their bond they'd ultimately acknowledged.

The positive turning point, however, was Elizabeth turned out better than David ever did, than the skank Rita herself. She graduated with her PhD and became a psychiatrist, and now she was among those to care for the criminally insane - even if one of them was Professor Crane, now going by the macabre costumed persona of the "Scarecrow".

Abandoning her jacket on the armrest far from her seat, Elizabeth sat down with _Beauty and the Beast and Other Tales_ and opened it to the one which was her cherished of all time as was the Disney animated movie of the same name. _Once more: parallels. Belle is a bookworm, and so am I._ And Elizabeth's middle name, after all, was Isa _belle._ Her grandmother and mother were both French, marking her blood one half. They both used to read the story to her when she was a very little one, and out of the other fairytales, she would always ask for _Beauty and the Beast_ , which had begun her love of books. Then in preschool, she was first brought to the library because her grandmother was its head librarian; Grandma Charlotte then died when she was barely nine years old, leaving her to pick her own books out from then on. Literature was always Elizabeth's escape, though while Bruce found his time to spare, he wasn't as drawn and dedicated as she was. But Professor Crane and Harley shared and supported her when she needed it.

 **There are endless books with every fairytale in existence, but I can't remember if "Beauty and the Beast and Other Tales" is one of them, or if the actual title of the book is one I came up with. It just seemed suitable for Elizabeth's favorite book. :)**


	6. Wounds

**Special thanks to my girl Vytina's "Origins" for the flashback inspiration.**

Chapter Six

Wounds

 _"Professor, Mr. Wayne, thank you both for your help," Detective Montoya said to them both before nodding and walking away from them to converse with her partner, Bullock. The good cop, bad cop routine he could read from afar. Sighing, Crane turned back to Wayne whom he had the pleasure of having a conversation with just moments before they found_ her _. He had sensed trouble abrewing the moment she left the party; he just knew Mr. Wallis wouldn't let her go so simply. That boy was a bad influence in his classroom and certainly was on Miss Dodson, the naïve spirit she still was._

And not so naïve anymore she will be after this.

 _"How do you think she is?" Wayne asked after a moment of pause. Jonathan frowned at him as he ran his hand through his hair._

 _"As can be expected, I imagine," he said coolly. "Your...friend has been almost ravaged to trauma, and that's the best question you can ask?"_

 _"Yeah, because my best friend was almost fully raped by her boyfriend who cheated on her, so I wish I knew the right words to say exactly. Maybe, Professor, you know what to tell her when she wakes up?" Wayne wasn't trying to challenge him, but give him enough to show he wasn't self-centered as Dr. Long called him. "I could at least do something to get him behind bars for this. Lizzie won't be willing to press charges, but she'll have to. You and I both saw what the bastard was doing to her."_

 _Crane nodded, tightening his lips. "Indeed." Somehow, he doubted it; David Wallis' parents both had seats among the Board of Directors, so they wouldn't be willing to put their son in jail over a lowly girl with a bright and shining future ahead of her. To them, Elizabeth was a simple girl whose head was in the clouds; his mother had probably thought her unfit for her precious prince. He seethed with uncontrollable age; to him, she and books were the most precious treasures than all the gold and jewels in the planet._

 _"Professor Crane, Mr. Wayne?" A nurse came up to them both. Elizabeth was now at Gotham General, and this woman was apparently overseeing her while her primary physician would take care of her physical treatment. "She's about to be sedated if you both want to see her first," the woman said kindly, leading the way in. "Poor dear." She shook her head._

 _Jonathan gritted his teeth when he saw her in the bed. Her waving locks were let loose so they covered the pillow like a mud puddle, her face pale but calm, and her chest rising and falling steadily as it should. The machine monitored her signs, but it wouldn't last. Just like her protection from men like Wallis didn't last._

 _But she was still alive, and that was what mattered the most._

 _"Lizzie," he heard Bruce whisper as he came to stand behind him. He sighed heavily, and Crane turned his face halfway to see him looking down at the floor in shame. "I should have asked her if she wanted a restraining order against him just to be safe..."_

 _"It's just a piece of paper," Jonathan interrupted softly, putting his hand on the billionaire's which had come to rest on his shoulder. "It wouldn't have prevented him from coming to the school, or anywhere outside. We both did the best we could, but...it wasn't enough." Already, he was planning to take matters into his own hands, even when he was told the details of trauma to that one special area of her body which would make even a preteen girl coming of age cry, but his special pupil's well-being came first._

 _Oh, yes, he did the best he could, but even the best of it was to come._ Do not fear, my pet. I will help you with this.

~o~

He'd endured broken bones in school and at the bony hands of his grandmother, pecked and clawed at by the crows in the church behind his granny's old manor, but none at the guards given he was always on good behavior - but what Bolton gave him with his nightstick was more than he could bear, and his sore ribs as well as between his legs was beyond tolerant.

Ed had been lucky enough to not get the treatment - for now. Bolton was well aware of his release soon, but that did not mean he would not have his brand of "fun" with the inmates. Jonathan had willingly chosen to take the fall for his "foul" talk about the new security chief, only for the man to come into his cell that same night when the lights were out. Every cell had a security camera, but chances were Bolton would tamper and hide the footage, never to be found again. Bolton specialized in sadism worse than the Joker or any other inmate in these walls...even the Scarecrow.

He could still hear Bolton's laughter like the devil himself as he tied Crane to his own bed before bringing down the stick to his poor ribs and nearly depriving precious oxygen from his lungs...and then down lower to where his dignity survived. He didn't think he would ever regain it afterwards.

The whole time Jonathan whimpered and curled into the fetal ball as soon as the monster left, he tried to think of Elizabeth the whole night: her long mane of rich brown hair shining lustrously in light pouring, her puppy brown eyes joyful - and devious - her body structure not compared to a certain evil blonde from his past, and her soft, plump lips always smiling at him and even tried their hardest after her former boyfriend ravaged her in a public hallway of all places...and at the _school_ itself. Even the beast's hums as he departed were the worst of music to his ears.

Jervis had been terrified of him the moment he met him in Elizabeth's office, hiding behind her as she so valiantly defended both herself and him. Jonathan wished he was there to witness it. _Her bleeding heart is touching._

Now he was at rec with him, as well as Edward, this time joined by Harley who was biting her lip as she remained by Tetch's side. Then she noticed how Crane winced as he sat down. "Hey, Professor Crane...?" she asked tentatively, stopping when he glared at her silently to hold her silence. "Sorry."

"Well, why the long faces, all of you?" Thank goodness, just the voice he wanted to hear. Jonathan tried to manage a smile when he looked up at her; however, she saw his struggling to sit straight up. "Jonathan? What's the matter?"

"Nothing." He didn't want her to know lest he'd be taken to the infirmary and forced to report humiliation. But at the same time, he wanted so much to tell her what happened, yet their friends were in front of them, and the main issue was that they were surrounded by others.

And she saw right through him. "I'm a doctor, so I know you're keeping something from me," she said softly, kneeling in front of him and hooking her eyes directly on his chest. Unashamed, she reached out and gently pushed her fingers on his left side; the pain shot through his body with the speed of thunder. Jonathan gasped sharply and tried not to cry out. Elizabeth's eyes were firm and soft at the same time, as were her words. "See, I knew it. We're taking you to the infirmary." Jonathan grumbled as he slowly stood up, flinching as he eased his movements. Jervis looked on with wide eyes, Edward's eyes narrowed knowingly, and Harley just had to ask.

"Is he gonna be all right, Lizzie?"

"Of course I will," he snapped as he let Elizabeth take him out of the recreation room. The moment he was next to her, he got a smell of her perfume. Jasmines, freesia... _roses. Classic and feminine._ It had always been her signature scent long before they first met, and it brought forth a stir in his body he couldn't help no matter how hard he tried. He shouldn't feel this way about his own doctor, but she wasn't wholly on the professional side with him.

~o~

She paced back and forth outside the infirmary, sighing and on the verge of tearing her hair from her head, but that would do no good. Something was wrong with Jonathan, but this had been no time to be stubborn. The second she touched the left side of his rib cage, she got a response. She'd be stupid to assume Bolton had no role in this, but if she straight out demanded to see security footage, she'd either be blocked or delayed by whatever excuse he had for not showing, which could very much mean that he'd hidden the tapes and would land him in trouble. And she wouldn't stand down if ordered to stay out of Bolton's business.

"How is he?" she asked Dr. Logan as he exited. He took off his glasses and sighed, rubbing his eyes.

"Well, Dr. Dodson, I hate to say that it was a case of a flight down the stairs."

She scoffed, disbelieving off the bat. "A flight down the stairs?" she repeated, dumbfounded, folding her arms across her chest. "To me, it seemed even more serious though I'm not a regular MD. Why would he keep quiet if it's the case?" _If Bolton really did this, then Jonathan must be afraid of reporting and being disbelieved, and who knows what Bolton would do to him._

Another question crossed her mind: _who else has Bolton harmed?_

Logan shrugged. "Everyone has their own business to keep to themselves, Elizabeth. It's my job to look after these men and women's health, but if they wanted to tell me or anyone else - including yourself - I'm sure they had their reasons for not doing so." He stepped aside and gestured for the open doorway. "He's going to be in here for awhile so I can perform more tests, but real quick I'm running for a coffee break. If you would like to remain with him until then, if you have no other patients..."

Elizabeth nodded. "Thank you," she said curtly, going inside and closing the door behind her, looking down at the man she cared greatly about as he did her. He scowled as he looked up at her from laying down on the long leather examination bed. "You know, after all these years, it'd be clear that we don't have to keep secrets from each other."

"You think I _wanted_ to keep this from you?" he asked angrily. "You know me, Elizabeth. As well as my reason for not reporting. I'm no fool."

"Of course you're not! But you're obviously not the only one he's inflicted his 'games' on. But don't bother telling me." She had no idea why she was losing it so fast; maybe it was because of the fact that the man who adored her more than anyone else in the world had just been injured if not the same way she had been, and was now in a vulnerable position like she had been that night. "That night I was in the hospital bed and Bruce left -"

"Are we actually going through this again?" he asked in exasperation, turning his head to the side and away from her. Oh, no, she wouldn't have this. The chair was, thankfully, sitting on that side his face was now focused on, and she walked over to sit down in it. She thought he would rotate his head the opposite way, but he didn't. Jonathan was looking at her but avoided direct eye contact.

"The point IS," she ground out, "you were the only one beside me the whole time as I physically recovered. Your situation isn't the same as mine, but there _is_ one detail that is."

His eyes glittered, and his mouth twitched at one corner. "And that is?"

"I'm staying beside you until you're healed and released. I'll reschedule an appointment or two until you're back on your feet, Jonathan. Dr. Bartholomew will understand." Her eyes were burning with tears. She was a doctor whose patient's life was all that mattered, although Jonathan wasn't just a patient. He was her old professor and dearest friend - but then her eyes found themselves looking at the soft smile on his face. He was in no fit to object as much as he wanted to keep his manliness in check, but he would have done it to Dr. Logan and the nurses. But not her.

In spite of herself - and her heart breaking just simply thinking of what else Bolton could do to Jonathan and the others - Elizabeth stood up and leaned over Jonathan, pressing a kiss to his forehead, letting a tear drop and hit his skin.


	7. Need You Now

**This chapter as well as some of the content is inspired by a song by Lady Antebellum which I love, as does my grandmother. I should let people know that the moment, a few years ago, I began the research on him before I did this story, I began to sympathize with Jonathan Crane because I was raised by a grandma who loved me and still thinks of me as her little angel; I was also born before my parents were even married, though they separated when I was still a baby. Jonathan's grandmother should have loved him despite being born out of wedlock, and I firmly believe that soft, innocent side of him is still inside him.**

Chapter Seven

"Need You Now"

He wanted to draw his head back and spit that he didn't want her sympathy while he was in this position, or anything from her for that matter, and Bolton could be watching from the security cameras hidden around here. She was risking her job and everything she had for this simple act of tenderness and grief. It was no different than he had when he held her hand as he sat beside her sick bed, and to see her cry made him want to when he hadn't done so since he was a young boy. Jonathan closed his eyes and relished the drop of water which burned the skin of his forehead. "You haven't cried since the university let me go," he said softly. _You were so heartbreakingly beautiful, so alone without me. But I believed you could survive as I did._

"Because it hurts me and makes me sick that Bruce had to hire that son of a bitch," she said furiously, standing straight and still looking down at him. "But he doesn't even know what's happening as much as I want to tell him! No proof might be found, and Bolton will get away with everything he does!"

She was raising her voice so high Dr. Logan - or worse, Bolton - could hear, so Jonathan reached out and took her hand into his, holding it there. His thumb massaged the vein in the back of her hand; he could feel her pulse picking up beneath her wrist. She was erratic with the new brute in this asylum that she wasn't making him feel any better, either. "Elizabeth, please keep calm. I'm afraid there isn't much you can do for me and the others at the present. For now, I'll have to endure Bolton whether I like it or not."

She shook her head in denial. "I won't let him anywhere near you or the others. I don't want anything else beyond the scope to -"

"Elizabeth Isabelle." She stopped there, looking down at him; the roles had switched around, and he was back to being her professor keeping her on her toes. "I have endured worse as much as this; I can take it as much as it pains me. It's not like I will die from it. For now..." He had been holding her hand the whole time, the heat between his and hers becoming hotter enough to match the rays of the sun. He gently pulled her down so her body was nearly touching his but not enough to press onto his torso. "...all you can do is be on my side. I need you right now and however long it takes to recover physically, and more to come."

Eight years altogether from teacher and student to doctor and patient hadn't changed the nature of their relationship, but in all those times, Jonathan Crane had tried to deny these symptoms in his body: his heart would always quicken in beats every time he saw her and thought of her, his breaths becoming deeper and faster than he could control. It was known as sexual attraction, but he was proud to know he kept these urges under control all this time; otherwise, it would have been unprofessional, and their relationship would have been stiff - on his part - and floundering - her part - in the aftermath. Elizabeth's face was leaning over his once more, but this time was in a direct, even level. He could feel her heartrate matching his own; this was a very dangerous position they were in, but he was willing to risk it to do the one thing he always wanted and knew she wanted it, too.

Their lips connected for the first time.

Jonathan's hand, still holding hers, raised to level with his head, his elbow bending in the process, and if you think about it, the gesture image was that of an erotic connection. But that wasn't what it was to him. This kiss was stimulating without the need for tongue and teeth, but he wanted more of it. Murmuring wordlessly against her mouth, he deepened it and bought his other hand to run up her back - _damn lab coat_ \- and found her wild hair, caressing the silken locks which smelled of water and cherry blossoms; her other hand was on the side edge of the bed to support her weight.

It couldn't last forever, and they both knew it. Elizabeth was the first to break it up. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips swollen and a darker shade of pink. Her eyes were glassy and lowered so she couldn't look at him out of sheer timidity at kissing a patient. Their hands were still interlocked and refusing to let go, but Jonathan removed the one in her hair and trailed it over her neck, then up to cup her chin as his way of telling her to not ever look away from him.

~o~

RIDDLER RELEASED TODAY

The papers said it all, and Elizabeth had picked it up on her way home from work, smiling slightly. Edward had survived the last two weeks in Arkham enough to get out in time. Sadly, he'd had a broken wrist a few days after Jonathan's ribs healed, but no questions asked as to how it happened, which angered Elizabeth very much. Right now she was on her way home to change into something nicer; she was having dinner with Bruce and Susan, as well as Tim, but first she was expecting a package to arrive today as Edward had asked her for last week.

When he told her the details and reason, she'd been surprised and not so surprised with such a big decision, but she relaxed when he added that he wasn't planning to ask Diane anytime soon. He was barely out of Arkham, barely survived Lyle Bolton's sadism and just beginning his new life. He was soon to be a co-advertiser, and already thinking about asking a full-busted nurse he had a fling with in under a year to marry him?! It was almost unheard of to Elizabeth, unless they'd done a lot more than just sex and managed to keep the true nature of their affair low-key.

When she got home, the box was waiting for her on her doorstep. Taking it inside, she did the honors of opening it and gaping at the real image of what Edward described he wanted for Diane. The emerald was pear-shaped and incredible on platinum, sided on either side with a baguette diamond. He really thought money didn't matter, only that it was for the lady of his dreams. Nygma was so sure of himself, but at least he knew how to treat a woman. The doorbell rung then, and speak of the devil as to who it was. "First day out of that place, and you're already starting mess again," she teased, handing the little black box to him.

He laughed and took it from her. "Well, riddle me this, riddle me that, what mysterious beauty lies within?" Opening the lid in response, he gaped. "Oh, she will absolutely be stunned. I picked a wise choice."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Of course you did. But just remember _I_ helped, Mr. Riddler."

"And I thank you for this, and for everything at Arkham, Lizzie," he purred, turning to take his leave but stopping with his head halfway turned to her, smiling smugly. "But before I do, there's a certain straw man at the hospital who fantasizes about you at night, when Bolton isn't looking, of course."

"Jon -" She stopped when the full meaning of the words sunk in. "He what?"

Edward laughed. "I got you, didn't I? He's going to kill me once he gets out of Arkham when his time comes, but Jonathan has an eye for you. He won't admit it, but he really adores you more than just as his doctor and a friend. I've seen the way he looks at you, and the way you look at him, but the problem being that neither of you found the right time to admit it to each other."

"It hasn't been the right time because it's inappropriate for doctor and patient to -" She stopped herself in time, feeling like her body had stopped and restarted in an uncontrollable frenzy. The fact that a released, reformed former madman had shown up on her doorstep for an engagement ring he requested since he couldn't do it on his own only to break it to her that Jonathan Crane, called the Scarecrow by everyone else, had _sexual_ thoughts about her? Her face heated up to an inferno temperature; it wasn't that she was disgusted, but the fact that she'd learned through a _friend_ how the man himself felt about her. She hadn't been able to forget about the kiss he gave her that day she brought him to the infirmary; his lips were firm and soft at the same time, everything she imagined it would be.

She'd been afraid when they'd deepened their first kiss, but she wanted it and knew he did, too. She knew they were being watched via security; it frightened her but also excited her. To kiss the Scarecrow felt like a rose in bloom, just refreshed and beautiful than anything else in the world even if not everyone around you cherished the experience. It didn't matter to her if it was wrong then, but he was still the man who set his fear toxin on Dr. Long and GSU, on those athletes and nearly set it all free in the city's water supply. But he did it all in the name of scientific curiosity and understanding; he was a scientist, and it was who he was, but that was where they differed. Elizabeth Dodson would never invade another person's mind for her own means.

 _David_ was the reason Jonathan conducted his illegal experimentation. Jonathan had been working on the toxin long before then and finally got a test subject. Rita was the next, and pretty soon he worked on them both at the same time, finally bringing Elizabeth in to watch the show then. She remembered being afraid out of her wits, thinking how wrong this was and listening to his words of wisdom that these two had ruined her life and go their just desserts. "They would have failed in their own lives anyway, Elizabeth," he'd said. "They aren't worthy of your forgiveness; you know it deep down."

 _Oh, how right you were,_ she thought. "Well, I'll keep this in mind, Edward," she said softly, walking back into her apartment and closing the door while her mind opened the door to the past, to that very first day he kept her after school and showed her his presentation.

~o~

 _She knew all along, based on simply his lectures and passionate explanations on the nature of human and animal fear, that Professor Jonathan Crane's methods were beyond natural. He'd made it clear to her that rules were by means of restriction but were easily broken - unless you had a very good reason for breaking them. And he had done so, and it frightened her worse than Halloween only a week ago; her body couldn't comprehend now as she did then._

 _She was overwhelmed with the purest of all horrors when she stood outside the door, below the university's first floor and surrounded by concrete and paint. On the other side of this one door was darkness illuminated with a single light to show the activity inside. And she could hear the other person on the other side screaming. "Professor, what is going on...?" she asked, staring with fright at the face of Rita Otto, the cheerleader who had taken David from her and broke up the one thing she wanted in the world on the same table as books._

 _"You're seeing it all for yourself," he answered, standing right behind her. "This..._ whore -" _He spat the word with unpolluted venom. "- gets her taste of fear. Just look at her: blonde, blue-eyed and a splendid athletic grace. Flocked by all sorts of men, including this one in the next." He brought her away from the window in the door to the next one three doors down - and this time she did utter a shriek of the face of the one who almost finished raping her that diabolical holiday. "Oh, yes, David Wallis. Your knight in shining armor who turned out to be a complete scoundrel sinking low to the brainless beauty instead of the woman of common sense who could actually put two and two together." He shook his head. "He's the lowest of the list of apes alive."_

 _Elizabeth had been by his side, but his attention all this time had been fixated on her tormentor that she had the opportunity to slip away from him and return to the window showing Rita howling and fighting off an imaginary demon. She caught the word: cockroaches. "Why is she saying...cockroaches?" she asked softly, even though she knew long before he answered her._

 _Crane chuckled and turned his attention back to her, abandoning David's door altogether. He'd known she was listening to every word he said but chose to return to the whore herself. "It's her worst fear, and borderline childish, yet naturally so," he answered. "Her seeing what she detests the most come alive and seen only before her eyes is what I promised she would get. And if you're wondering, Mr. Wallis is petrified of rats. In case you never knew to begin with."_

 _She nodded; seeing the two people who hurt her most in her life finally screaming and fighting themselves was better than anything she'd ever seen in her life, but - "But why this? The police let them -"_

 _"Of course they did!" he said brusquely. "They knew of the matter, took my words and Mr. Wayne's into account, but his parents ordered the affair let go of. There was no justice served. These two are the true monsters they will take lightly. Despite the best efforts of your friend and myself, and Dr. Long if limited as he was, they will never be looked at a second time - it will be as if the whole event never happened. It is up to you and me now, Elizabeth." His dark eyes had been hard with malice, now softened with encouragement. "Miss Otto and Mr. Wallis must pay for their crimes. Do you want to get back what they took from you or no?"_

~o~

He awoke with a bolt in his bed after that dream once more about Elizabeth and himself. Without a doubt, his body was aching with clear arousal. He could feel it in his loins. It had increased to almost every other night since the first kiss two weeks ago, becoming three more times in her office at irregular times with disregard to the obvious security cameras always monitoring every room. Each kiss hadn't changed the stirring heat in his body, causing all the blood to rush down to his groin. Elizabeth occupied every thought of his when he couldn't control it; he would never be rid of her, no matter how often he would say it.

Jonathan groaned softly when he found his release, having shoved his pants down to free his need so he wasn't soaked and sticky through the night. He was careful to not make any noises to wake any of the other inmates - including poor Jervis - as well as provoke Bolton into coming in here. But his prayers were not answered. Just as he was settling down for a try of a peaceful night, the footsteps were coming and finally stopped at his door...and when it opened, the voice of the sadistic monster himself startled him fearfully. Sitting upwards, Jonathan drew the covers up to half-hide his face as he beheld the leer of the Nightmare Man who terrified even the Master of Fear himself.

"Well, get a move on, Crane. You're in serious trouble now."

"Wh-what did I do?" Jonathan stammered, too shaken to move of his own volition, resulting in the man striding over and grabbing him by the shirt collar and dragged off his feet and out of his cell. He tried not to make a sound lest the other prisoners woke and saw him. He found himself in Bolton's office very soon and shoved into a chair, facing the television Bolton kept so he could watch the security footage himself whenever he pleased.

"Something very inappropriate that I could show Dr. Bartholomew, but then that would mean having the little lady involved fired, or perhaps transferred out of here. Or suspended, perhaps. But we can't have that, now can we?" Bolton's sickening smile made him sink lower in the seat. "It would ruin the pleasure of having to spot her from where I am every now and then, right, Crane?"

 _Elizabeth,_ he thought with horror. But he said nothing, instead hooking his eyes on the screen which showed that day he was in the infirmary for his ribs...and Elizabeth was over him in every way he remembered crystal clear, engaging in their first act of long-buried passion. _Oh, dear God, no...!_

"Oooh, that looks like fun," Bolton said gleefully when he spotted where Jonathan's hand was going. "Very delicious...makes me wonder how the press will take if I ever put this out, not that I would." Jonathan whirled around finally and seethed at him, his courage temporarily returned only to meet with Bolton's equally raging expression.

"You're sick," Jonathan spat.

"What...did...you say?" Bolton slowly stood up and walked around his desk so he towered over Jonathan. "Answer me, Crane: what did you say?"

"I said..." he ground out. "...that you are SICK." His defiance rewarded him with a strike across the face so hard his teeth almost loosened. Then he was grabbed by the shirt collar and forced on his knees, facing Bolton. He heard the sound of a zipper coming undone and protested. "No, stop!"

"You need a lesson in manners, Crane. Start by this way." His screams were muffled as he was grabbed by the hair and shoved forward onto that horrible thing now in his mouth. He would not be able to sleep well for the rest of the night, or even forget about it for days - perhaps weeks, months - to come. And he feared how Elizabeth would react if she ever found out be it from him or his violator. _My pet...forgive me, I beg you._


	8. Tribunal

Chapter Eight

Tribunal

Things had been quiet in Arkham ever since the Riddler departed, even the ever bubbly Harley, and Elizabeth knew why. Whatever Bolton was up to, she couldn't take it anymore and had to get to the bottom of it. Bruce had told her that the contract was for a year at Arkham, give it enough time to keep the inmates in check so they could focus on getting well and getting back out into proper society. _It stops today._

But right now, she found herself looking over the small group that was Jervis, Harley and Jonathan in the rec room - especially Jonathan. Jervis was trying to be his usual jovial self but found it difficult, even when he tried to persuade Jonathan to join him in their game of chess, but the latter refused without a word. Jervis tried again only for Jonathan to finally speak, and his words were firm, almost raising enough for the whole room to hear.

"Jervis, I said _no._ I didn't get enough sleep last night, so please."

She wasn't fooled to think that nothing happened to result in his change of behavior. _Whatever it was, Bolton is going to pay for this. And Bruce needs to see for himself. If we're lucky, Bolton might spark a reaction amongst the inmates in order for Bruce to see it. Think he made a mistake by some means. Bruce treats everyone like they're human beings, criminal or not._

She quickly left the scene before Harley could spot her; she could make herself useful by trying to keep everyone as well as herself happy. She marched for her office with her head high and face straight, ignoring everyone around her and marching for the phone, getting a hold of Bruce right away and at perfect timing, just as he was leaving a conference with the Wayne Enterprises board.

~o~

Bruce had to admit he was taken aback by Elizabeth asking him to pay a visit the next day, and the same time she was having an appointment with Jervis Tetch. And it was about Bolton, because she knew "the bastard" - her words - was covering up his methods of keeping the inmates in check. The reason Bruce hired him was because of his impressive credentials, so he didn't check any further into his background other than family history. On paper, he was an absolute rock star. _But there's always dirt under the surface. Lizzie is never wrong about anything - except that one time._

"Lizzie!" He flashed her his smile that he did not put on for the press, only for each other, as he walked into her office, seeing the various books on the shelf as well as the spotlessness, and the Blue Willow butterfly sculpture on her desk corner. Everything about this room screamed Lizzie Dodson he remembered from childhood. "Been awhile," he said, unsure of what else to say, and because the Mad Hatter who used to work for him was in the room. "Mr. Tetch, how are you?"

Jervis was very timid at being in the presence of his former employer, so he lowered his eyes to the ground and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Oh, hm, very well, M-M-Mr. Wayne. I suppose." But Bruce smiled and walked over to stand over him. Batman aside, this man wasn't a real major threat, from everything Lizzie told him. All only because he loved a girl who didn't love him back; only to impress her and nothing drastic. _Yet went to drastic measures when she chose the other man who gave her problems._ Alice Pleasance no longer worked at Wayne Enterprises; after Tetch's trial, he'd been given a restraining order against her, and he could imagine the man didn't take it well. Lizzie even filled him in on heartbreak worse than any other you could imagine, but that Harley Quinn had been revealed as a possible second chance for him.

That alone troubled Bruce. Quinn had more than difficulties trying to move past the Joker, but maybe the polite, childlike Jervis Tetch could fix that? Looking him over one more time, Bruce saw the possibility.

"Hey, Mr. Tetch - or Jervis, if you're okay with that." Jervis nodded, chewing his lip nervously. "I don't want you feeling bad, okay? I think things are going to get better for you, and once you're out of here, I'll allow you back into Wayne Enterprises so maybe you can get your life back. And I can bring Miss Quinn in and give her a therapeutical position, too," he added, looking up at Lizzie. _Though I have yet to ask her myself. Quinn was a doctor and had a bright future ahead of her before the Joker snapped her mind. She was great, too, and the patients loved her as much as Lizzie. But Arkham doesn't seem the right place for her with Joker always around. Her and Jervis together under my watch is plausible enough._

Lizzie's face was awashed with absolute surprise at his suggestion, but before she could answer, the door was knocked on harshly and rapidly, making Jervis gasp and jump immediately to his feet. Bruce whirled around and stood up, frowning. "Come in," Elizabeth called, rising from behind her desk and moving before Jervis in a protective stance. It seemed she knew who it was based on the manner of the knocking. The door opened, and Lyle Bolton came in.

His face burst into surprise at seeing the man who hired him in the room. "Mr. Wayne, what a surprise. I was told the asylum's benefactor was here, but I never thought I'd find you in _here_."

"Nah, I'm not really here on business, Mr. Bolton. Just paying my good friend, Dr. Dodson here -" He looked over to see Lizzie's face in a definite scowl and Jervis cowering behind her, shaking harder and faster than he'd seen any of the Rogues quiver. He was beginning to now think exactly what she was: _Bolton's done TOO good a job._ "- a visit," he finished, looking back at the man larger than he was when Bolton chuckled.

"Your friend is the charming one out of the other doctors, aside from Leland, of course. The scum in this place really look up to her; no wonder they escape so often. They take advantage of a forgiving soul to fuel themselves. That's why I do what I do best with the systems to make sure they get no further over the gates of Arkham."

He felt inside him snap at the words. He'd spoken like he was just like Batman, wanting to keep the villains away from the rest of the civilians...but the meaning ran that much deeper, and he knew it. Jervis Tetch was a clear example that the security chief harbored more than meets the eye.

~o~

 _This is it: our chance to finally be rid of that monster._ But he could not shake off the possibility that Bolton would still get away with his crimes unpunished, and more harm done to him and the others would be worse than before.

Jonathan stood off to the side with Harley, Arnold Wesker and Scarface as the only "willing" to testify against their abuser. But just because they might reveal enough of what Bolton did to them and get him out of Arkham and their lives forever did not mean they would tell _everything._ Crane himself could still feel _and_ taste IT on himself; the scar it left on his mind would take much longer to heal or perhaps never. Elizabeth hadn't been able to piece it together yet, but for how much longer?

She was there at this hearing three days later, but it wasn't public. It was to remain between her, Dr. Bartholomew, Commissioner Gordon, Mayor Hamilton Hill, and of course, Bruce Wayne. _Elizabeth's friend and the man behind Bolton's promotion._ It had been Wayne's idea, really, to hold this unofficial trial because he had questions and suspicions about whatever Bolton's methods were; it was unspoken that his friend, a doctor at the institution, had voiced her concerns to him. Her soft brown eyes met his much darker ones, silently sending him the message: _don't be afraid. We'll win this battle and I know it._ He hoped so, too.

He looked at Bolton directly, though the latter's face looked in his direction from the side, darkly warning him that this was a waste of time and that they would never be free from him. Jonathan kept his hands behind his back, his fingers crossed. Harley was up first, and not surprisingly enough, she denied everything against the question as to whether or not she had complaints of any kind. Of course she would keep her silence; Bolton's sick smile had made her sink lower than she was. Arnold and his puppet endured the same; Scarface even praised him, earning a proud smirk from the demon and his arms folding across his chest.

His heart was pumping with great speed and ready to explode like an overheated water system.

"Professor Crane, you've been sitting here for ten minutes," Dr. Bartholomew said gently. "Don't you have anything to say?"

The others held their silence, so why shouldn't he, now that he saw it all useless as foreseen? "No, sir," he said quietly, shaking his head.

"And yet, yours was the loudest voice in the protest," Bolton said smugly, secretly bringing up the security footage of his and Elizabeth's make-out session and the fact he stood up to him - and look what it got him. "You must have _some_ misgivings about my methods." _Don't listen; he's testing you,_ his mind tried to encourage him.

Jonathan finally looked up and saw Elizabeth's fallen face, Mayor Hill's calculating face as well as Jim Gordon's defined frown - and finally Wayne eyeing him with his eyes narrowed and hand on his chin as though taking something into consideration. "It seems I was...mistaken," he said finally. _Doomed. How could I have been such a fool to think otherwise?_ He stood up and allowed himself to be escorted back over to the others by one of the orderlies. He looked back up when Wayne stood and spoke.

"Well, then, based on today's testimony, I propose extending Mr. Bolton's contract for an additional...eighteen months."

He wasn't sure if he gasped first or Harley and Arnold. Either way, the thought of over another year under Bolton's unforgiving reign?! He saw Elizabeth looking over with the same expression in her eyes, on the verge of jumping and screaming her case for them, but the Ventriloquist stood up for her.

"No, you _can't!_ You don't know what he's DOING to us!"

"Shut up!" Scarface shouted in his face before looking back to the men in charge. "Don't listen to Jerk Face here; he doesn't know what he's saying!"

Jonathan watched on as Harley struck him quiet and grabbed Wesker by his shirt. "No, it's all true! If we don't speak up now, we'll NEVER get another chance!" One of the men in white moved to tear her from Wesker while another carefully pulled him away as she continued to scream her side finally. "He threatens us, takes away our privileges, even when we're _GOOD!"_

Bolton growled viciously and stood. "We've heard _enough_ of this nonsense."

Jonathan found his eyes once more meeting Elizabeth's - _do it,_ they pleaded, _this is your only chance!_ He couldn't agree more and stepped forward. "He says scum like us should be kept in line. That's why he chains us down at night and electrifies our doors!"

"He held me over a can of termites, ya hear me? _TERMITES!_ " Scarface howled.

The cries continued on: "He's an animal...a monster...!" And then Bolton's rage bubble burst in front of the important ones in the entire room.

"SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU!"

Instantly, the panic of being attacked again returned, and Jonathan stumbled backwards to join the others. He wanted to move beside Elizabeth, but then the table being tossed over and in their direction made her and Harley scream. Even the orderlies were no match for his brute strength. Now that he, Harley and Arnold and the puppet were vulnerable, Bolton charged only to be tripped by the chair Wayne had done the honors of knocking over to save them. Now the orderlies could constrain him, but his tirade was let loose in a fury. "You're all scum! You should be beaten within an inch of your misbegotten lives!"

Elizabeth was in front of them, her arms spread on either side as if to block him from coming anywhere else near them even though she didn't have to; he was held back enough. Dr. Bartholomew's temper was lost. "I've seen enough!" he roared, silence echoing intensely for a moment. "Lyle Bolton...you're dismissed."

Jonathan finally raised his body from its cowering position and moved closer behind Elizabeth, who lowered her arms then. Bolton's devilish eyes were burning with each word, murderously glaring at Bartholomew. "Before I came here," he raged, "Arkham was a revolving door for every maniac in Gotham. I kept them in - ME! Now I realize I was wrong to punish those pathetic miscreants!" he snarled at Jonathan and the others. "They're only symptoms; _you're_ the cause! The gutless police -" _Gordon._ "- mindless bureaucrats -" _Hill._ "- and coddling doctors!" _Bartholomew_. "You should _ALL_ be locked up in a cage _without a key!_ " But it didn't stop there.

"And as for you, little bitch!" _Oh, no, Elizabeth._ Jonathan fiercely reached to take her by the arms and turn her away from him as he was led out the door. "I'll get YOU most of all someday!"

The doors closed on his rants at last, the echoing sound telling Jonathan Crane that he was gone now - forever - but his ever analyzing brain couldn't shake off the threat to the woman who protected him and the others from that thing.

 **Whoo-hoo, the bastard's gone - but we haven't seen the last of him. :S**


	9. The Ties That Bind

Chapter Nine

The Ties That Bind

 _"Mr. Bolton, any comments on your dismissal and the charges of extreme behavior?"_ Summer Gleeson had asked for her story as soon as the former head of security was kicked out the front doors of the very asylum he tried to keep its notorious blackguards inside.

 _"This city is an opened wound begging to be stitched,"_ was the response, and the look in his eyes was something she would never forget. Elizabeth cringed and shut off the TV, unable to listen anymore. It had been three weeks since the trial, and life at Arkham had improved with a better security chief whom the inmates felt a little more comfortable around. And no word from Lyle Bolton since then; it seemed he was either lying low or left Gotham without a trace.

Susan snorted beside Bruce on the couch. Elizabeth had joined them that evening for dinner, along with Dick, Barbara and Tim; Alfred politely and quietly stood off to the side, watching with a grim expression. "Well, wherever he is, he won't get another job anywhere else with his new bad name," Susan noted, Tim chipping in with a stick of his tongue at the screen, making the girls laugh and Bruce frowning disapprovingly.

"Yeah, and on a scale of the Creep-O-Meter," Dick added, "it's an eleven. I would have said ten, but now with this..." He trailed off with no necessary means of continuation.

Elizabeth had felt like crying the moment it was official that the demon who tormented the patient-prisoners she called her friends and responsibilities - and the one she had growing feelings beyond mere friendship for - was gone for good, that they never would have to see again, but she could never forget the promising look in his eyes. Perhaps it was better safe than sorry to never let her guard down like she did on Halloween five years ago.

"Well," Bruce said, "I think we've had enough of this man now. They've made a big deal about him long enough, and I called everyone here for a reason." He turned his attention to Susan then, getting off the sofa and onto one knee, making her gasp. Around them, the butler and the other three did the same, faces gaping with surprise. Elizabeth's heart leaped; this could mean only one thing. _It's been barely two months and it's happening already!_

The ring revealed from Bruce's pocket was a massive emerald-cut diamond on sterling silver. _Twenty carats, befittng royalty. Still not my taste, but perfect for her._ Bruce didn't even need to ask, and the look on Susan's face said it all.

~o~

His life as Batman was officially over.

The city still needed saving, but he couldn't go through this forever. Dick, Barbara and Tim were his last hopes. They knew this would happen sooner or later as he did. _The day came sooner than we thought._

Six months later, he and Susan were married outside Wayne Manor and under the grand gazebo overlooking the ocean, very similar to Veronica and Michael's wedding but awashed with color. Soft pink curtains fluttered in the breeze around the pillars, the roof hung with a few crystal chandeliers, and lining the head of the aisle and at the altar were thick posts of pink and lavender roses paired with baby's breath. But Bruce paid no attention to anyone or anything else other than his beautiful bride - the dream he never thought he could have, much less fall in love with so easily.

Susan's light-colored hair was loose and about, underneath a short, single-layered veil without embellishment. Her dress was dramatic artistry with the figure-hugging bodice of heavy beading, and the skirt was a volume of ruffled fantasy. This had been Michael Vreeland's friend whom he met at another's wedding only to, two short months later, decide she was the one. _She's everything I need and more,_ Bruce thought when their vows were taken then, and they were married.

Now the reception was held in the grand ballroom of Wayne Manor, where Lucius Fox proposed a toast to the new Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Wayne. If only his parents could see him now. Surrounded by orchids and crystals - and over one hundred guests - Bruce ignored this as a formal affair and chose to see it as the happiest day of his life, with this confident and sophisticated woman beside him, who looked up at him with those wide green eyes of hers. "It's all as I imagined it would be," she said softly, "like a fairytale." He couldn't agree more. It _was_ a fairytale, only real.

"Congratulations, the both of you," Elizabeth said, taking Susan into an embrace, finally turning to Bruce. "I told you at Ronnie's wedding, didn't I?" she asked with a devious wink. Bruce felt like returning it, but then he detected that familiar sadness. She was almost twenty-six and still single, and he worried for her more than ever. Her life had been hard enough, and Bruce would sooner trade anything he owned to help make her happy again.

"You did, Lizzie. And thanks for being here."

"Don't mention it." Her voice was soft and distracted, lined with everything her eyes reflected.

~o~

 _Now no more of Dr. Murphy,_ Jonathan thought with satisfaction as he was escorted down to Elizabeth's office, which was the last place he ever thought he would end up being under the care of. _His probing about my childhood - did he honestly think I would bend?! Miserable fool; they need to think about their own selves before they make it their business to pry into our minds._

He'd been able to get a hold of his confiscated fear toxin and set it loose on Dr. Murphy, his assigned therapist, in order to understand him and his personal demons, before the guards broke down the door and took him to solitary for a week. Murphy was placed in as a patient, still screaming, "No, Mommy, NO!"

"Good morning, Elizabeth," he said pleasantly as he sat down. "How are you today?"

" _My_ session, Jonathan." She gave him a crooked grin and pointed to herself for emphasis. He smiled.

"Of course it is. I was only messing around with you."

"Like you did with Dr. Murphy that Bartholomew _had_ to give you to me?" Her soft lips thinned. "I would have said you were so lucky to not be thrown into confinement for this, but how wrong I was," she scolded, that grin fading altogether. "What were you thinking, getting back to work in his office of all places and during a therapy session of all times?"

Jonathan chuckled and shrugged with one shoulder. "I only wanted to understand him - his personal demons, his fears and so on. Apparently, his mother had something to do with his reasons for becoming a psychiatrist, but before I could finish, the imbeciles broke in and interrupted the good progress."

Elizabeth sighed and shook her head. "Jonathan, I really want you to get out of this place, but if you continue to do this to every doctor assigned to you -" She broke off when her office phone started ringing. "Hello, Dr. Dodson." A pause. "Yes, this is she." Jonathan furrowed his brow as he watched her on, catching certain changes in her demeanor. First her face was stone calm, before it ultimately changed completely to that of a frown, but her tone was used for the caller as an attempt to disguise whatever else she was feeling. "Oh, when did that happen?" Pause. "A week? Why wasn't I notified before?" Another pause. "Oh, I see. Well, when is the funeral taking place?"

 _She's lost someone...could it be her father?_ "Okay, I'll be there then. I just need to speak to my boss and have someone fill in for me then. Alright, thank you again." She hung up afterwards, releasing a sigh of frustration, slumping back into her chair, which Jonathan found a bit on the adorable side.

"Let me guess: your father," he stated.

Elizabeth nodded. "He's dead. Died last week, and I wasn't notified sooner."

"Do you actually care?" he inquired.

"What do you think?"

He directly recalled in her sophomore year that her parents had separated when she was ten years old, but he always knew the waters ran deeper than that. He didn't push her to give more details because it was her decision to tell him when she was ready. "Of course...but now that he is gone, are you in any shape or form ready to tell me the truth about the nature of the separation of your parents?"

~o~

Talking about her mother always brought back painful memories; she had been an innocent child of ten when Giselle was taken away from her life. She never told Jonathan the whole story as a result, but she knew he wouldn't let the subject go so easily, either. And her father was dead, with no surprise of no reconciliation. "Elizabeth?" Jonathan pressed when she didn't answer him. Realizing she'd been slumping in her seat, she straightened up as well as her hair over both shoulders and leaned forward, folding her hands together.

"My mother spent ten years in the institution in Macon and _died_ there," she said at last.

She looked up from the desk surface when he didn't repons. His whole body had stiffened, face masked with rage; his eyes narrowed and lips pursed into a thin line. "Go on," he said softly, angrily. Not at all what she expected, but sympathy wasn't in his book. Everyone needed more than just sympathy, but what could she really ask for?

She was pouring out the story before she knew it. "It was a drug overdose, the year before I was attacked. She was known to be suffering depression, mostly because she gave up her career at the demands of her husband, to take care of the house while he handled business. He was a steel tycoon, you see, and you know how most men are in that direction. She was always unhappy, losing her identity, but it was always me and her. Dad and I were never close, so when he locked her away when she confronted him and couldn't take anything anymore, I did everything I could to avoid him as much as possible, even escape to the library which was my favorite place to be out of anywhere else."

"What about any other family, such as your grandmother?"

"Died the year before Mama was committed, which was the final straw in her condition. She and her daughter were French, which is where half my roots are, and explains, I think, my love for _Beauty and the Beast_ ," she said with a nervous laugh. "They were the ones to introduce me to the story."

He was smiling at her again. "Elizabeth, the day we first met, I thought I _was_ looking at Belle for the moment. I thought you were...the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I have never...known another like you before. I let my heart get the best of me once, but she ruined everything no different than Wallis did to you."

Elizabeth gaped when he - sort of - told her that he'd been in love once, but like her, it ended in tragedy. Meeting his eyes, gone was the maniacal lust for fear, gone was the calculating scientist's precision...and in their place was the soul of a man who was coming out of his hardened and ultimately broken shell. _Eyes are windows to the soul...and I'm seeing into his._

 **So Bruce Wayne ultimately finds happiness after a life of hell, just like at the end of "The Dark Knight Rises". :)**

 **The name of Jonathan's therapist is derived from the video interview of him in the Arkham Asylum video game; a reference to his TDK trilogy actor, Cillian Murphy, whom I also worship. :)**

 **And ohhh, what does this mean now for the lovebirds?**


	10. Break Out

Chapter Ten

Break Out

She was in no way different than he had been as a child: isolated and always engrossed in books and knowledge, never getting along with their only parental guardian - his case had been his grandmother. Love lives shattered because first loves betrayed them.

"What happened to...her?" she asked.

He scowled. "She was a cheerleader, much like Otto was. Same circumstances involving captain of the football team, albeit reversed." He leaned in close enough to level his eyes with hers despite her desk being the five-foot obstacle between them. "Breathe not a word to anyone as part of your job, Elizabeth." It was meant to be an actual threat, but she wasn't afraid of him. He never learned what her true fears were, because she hadn't been willing to tell him during any time. She had said once that her fears were for herself to keep, and her mental state at the time of her rape had prevented him from probing. By that time, he'd been fired after the discovery of experimenting on her tormentors.

"Her name was Sherry Squires. Unlike you, she had blonde hair and blue eyes, striking and every boy's fantasy. You can imagine how I was then," he said wryly. "I first met her in my freshman year in high school. In the small town of Arlen in the deepest part of Georgia, religion and bad blood existed as one, as in the oldest of times. And because I was the illegitimate son of the 'town harlot', as my mother, Karen Crane, was called, I was called the demon spawn at both school and home, although no one ever found out my grandmother's tendencies. Everything with her ended when I was nearing graduation of high school when she fell down the stairs as I tried to get away from her just as she tried to get me into the church behind our home once more."

He smiled at the horror on her face. "Y-you - she fell down the stairs? What church?" She questioned him like a young girl starry-eyed and scared of anything she didn't want happening.

"Indeed. As a boy, for punishment of my birth and any little error I made - including reading godless science books, as she called them - she would force me into a Sunday suit and take me to the old church out back, where flocks of crows were kept. It was her means of 'cleansing the devil'. Every day, I would go to school with scratches, bruises and broken bones, and in turn receive more from the school troublemakers - including Bo Griggs, the football captain who had been Sherry's boyfriend. I never knew they were an item until too late; you can say that she came to me one day with the pretense that she loved the subject of the human mind as I did, kissed me for the first time after a few months, but by the time of senior prom, all hell broke loose.

"I had been a foolish young man of eighteen at the time, and I thought what Sherry and I had was real love, the love that Belle and the Beast - one of the few tales I truly took to heart - had despite outward appearance differences until the very end, but she _used me_." He seethed as his heart clamped with the pressure of being in a vice. "She, Bo and some of the members of the football team tied me to a custom-made cross like a scarecrow in the cornfield, right after stripping me naked and touching me in every place my body was never made for. But no actual penetration, of course," he added at the look on her face; inwardly, he was ashamed at confessing this long-buried secret when the other, most recent was fresher than any ripe fruit on the planet. "Because of the nature of abuse my body bore, strung up in Christ crucifixation form for the whole town to see, they called me 'scarecrow'. Hideous, marred, skeletal...monstrous..."

He felt his whole body quaking with the raging memory of prom night, how the first woman who pretended to love him preyed on his heart for her own brand of fun - and the revenge he took afterwards. Elizabeth had not breathed a word the whole time, but he saw the tears rolling down her cheeks like crystal waters. Her eyes were red, cheeks turning dark pink as she fought back sobs. "But I took care of them the next week, on the night before graduation, which was the same night my grandmother fell down the stairs as I have previously mentioned. Sherry and Bo were on a date, and I took matters into my own hands to follow them, strip down and show my marked body which had suffered enough for nearly two decades of life, complete with the mask of the scarecrow which had long stood tall and proud in the cornfield of my grandmother's estate." Now that he thought of it once more, even voiced it aloud, he chuckled both to her and himself, knowing it unnerved her most of all.

He was surprised she even spoke at all, after the whole time of silence. "What...did...?"

"What did I do?" Jonathan finished for her. "The streets were mostly dark and quiet, save for those two on their last night together before going off separate ways, as it goes for everyone after high school. Their car's headlights caught my nude, masked form before Bo swerved off - he'd been driving - and hit them both into a tree. He had been paralyzed from the waist down, but Sherry broke her neck and died. There had been reports of the sighting of a 'naked masked maniac', but no one ever suspected me, much less found out. Thirty-three years ago," he finished, "and that is the end of my life story for our session, I believe." He looked up at the clock as his method of changing the topic. "So, when will you be leaving?"

"The funeral and the will are in four days. I'm catching a flight the day before." Her answer had been choked, crying now. He looked back at her to see her coming around and sitting on his lap, throwing her arms around his neck for a hug. He was shocked by the action; his arms moved on their own and enveloped around her small figure, bringing her in closer.

"B-B-Bruce might not be available for the funeral, because he never liked my father," she gasped on, trembling, "so I'll be going alone. I can deal with this by myself because Bruce has been there enough for me in my lifetime."

 _Seems like she'll need an escort._ It shocked him to think that. What, now he decided to return to the state he abandoned long ago? _Think about it, you can try to shove the past down there...but it's not like you'll return to the town YOU are from._ Of course he wouldn't, but he _did_ know this for sure: he needed to get out of here, just to be with her while she was in Georgia clearing everything up and learning if her father left her anything. He just couldn't let her handle this by herself.

~o~

She decided to go to Dr. Bartholomew now before the day was over, right after Jonathan was taken back to his cell and she'd dried most of her tears away, though her face was still red, but it was not the news of her father's death - it was the story of Jonathan's life. Too grim to describe to herself, but it was worse than she ever imagined. It was no wonder he never told her before, not even during college.

 _His grandmother...the first girl he thought he loved...the other children at school...just EVERYTHING..._

She felt like her head was spinning, but she forced herself to remain steady by the time she reached Bartholomew's office. She opened the door without coming inside. "Doctor." She tried not to sound too strangled, but she felt like she was going to cry again because of remembering Jonathan's horrific tale of abuse and murder.

"Oh, Elizabeth!" The older doctor looked straight at her face, and his own fell. "Why, whatever happened?!"

"My father died."

He sighed and shook his head. "My condolences. I know what it's like to lose a loved one." _If only he knew._ "When is the funeral?"

"In four days, but I was hoping to catch a flight the day before," she answered. "With your permission, of course. I was planning to stay in Georgia for a week to clear things up, too."

"Certainly. I'll have Dr. Carlyle take care of your patients for you for the duration until your return, my dear. But I wish you for the best while you spend the next week in Georgia clearing things up. I'd hate to see you leave so soon even if it is for a brief period."

~o~

Thankfully, Harley Quinn had been the one to trigger the alarm and release more than enough Arkham inmates free from their cages. _Planning to do what she does best, while_ I _do what I must,_ Crane thought triumphantly as he, amid the chaos, seized the opportunity to escape through the unsecured gate in which the other inmates and slink into the shadows upon reaching the nearest alleyway he could find. It hadn't taken him long before to sneak out of his cell earlier that evening after Elizabeth had taken off for the rest of the day to find her home address, so the answer should be obvious as to where he was going now.

~o~

Wearing her white-and-black damask-printed pajamas that night, Elizabeth grabbed her suitcases and grabbed everything she needed for her trip to Georgia. This was in no way meant to be a social getaway; actually, half yes and half no. It was mainly because she needed closure in Georgia, to try and revisit the past. As predicted, Bruce wouldn't be down for the funeral, because he was overseas in Hong Kong to strike a deal. She was going solo.

Once she was finished, Elizabeth put her trunks at the foot of her bed. Her bedroom was personalized with butterflies without making it overdone. The bed was blossomed to life with embroidered monarchs and flowers, the furniture pieces around white ceramic on top of carved white wood. To the right of the bed - her right, actually, if she were laying in it - was an incredible butterfly and tealight votive. This was a garden of enchanted elegance to her. She was tired and wanted to go to bed soon, but she was hungry and decided to heat up some bean and bacon soup in the kitchen. While it was boiling, she turned on the news and was greeted with a shocking headline.

 _"Arkham Asylum has had yet another massive breakout, and not only have a vast amount of low-key nutcases escaped and are now roaming the streets, but a small handful of the notorious Rogues Gallery is roaming free. Among are Harley Quinn, Two-Face, the Scarecrow -"_

"Oh, God." She dropped the remote, no longer paying attention to Summer Gleeson's words. Her head was in a whirlpool. Jonathan was in the streets, and if -

She was interrupted by a loud tapping on her window in the kitchen. Shrieking, she jumped up and ran for the wall table beside her front door; her pistol was already loaded, and she tiptoed quietly into the kitchen, raising the barrel to the window. She'd locked it - she always made sure to lock her house securely - so she had no choice but to unlock and shoot whoever was out there -

"Jonathan!" she exclaimed when she saw the face in the window. He was not wearing the blue-gray prisoner uniform, having changed into a flannel shirt and whatever else he'd stolen, gotten rid of his prisoner clothing altogether. Lowering the weapon, she stalked over and unlocked the window, opening it to let him climb in and slide off the counter. "What are you doing out of the hospital?" she demanded, putting the safety back on the revolver. "And why are you at my house? If the police or the Batman ever come here -"

Crane broke her off with a laugh. "Oh, they won't come here because the shadows guided me. And the Joker will keep the Bat busy, as he does best. But I assure you, my plans do not involve what I do best."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at him. "And what does that have to do with me? Assuming that's why you're here."

"You are assuming correctly. Perhaps it is because of you returning to Georgia by yourself in the event of your father's demise."

Her jaw dropped to the floor, and she nearly tumbled over for real before picking herself up. "Wh-what?!" _Of all the things_ -

"Believe me, Elizabeth, I don't know how to absorb it myself given I haven't particularly had the close connection with anyone for a long time."

She had no idea what to say, instead choosing to look up at the clock, seeing that it was nearing nine; last time she'd checked, it was almost eight. "They'll call me soon and notify me that you're missing."

Suddenly the phone rang, making her jump and him laugh. "Perfect timing." Elizabeth just stayed where she was, just watching the phone on her kitchen counter ring before Jonathan finally got her to move. "What, you're not going to answer that?"

Bolting around the oak table and chair set, she snatched the touchphone from its holder and pressed the green button. "Hello?"

 _"Oh, Elizabeth dear, pardon me if this is a bad time and being so late,"_ Dr. Bartholomew's voice apologized, wavering slightly.

"Oh, not at all," she assured him, turning her attention to the doorway where Jonathan was now standing, watching her intently. "What can I do for you?"

There was a brief, dramatic pause. _"Well, one of the inmates_ \- _possibly Harley Quinn_ \- _set off the security system and released much of the inmates, so we have the police searching for them, and I believe the Batman will be doing his best, too. But among the escaped..."_ He trailed off right there, knowing she would know the answer.

"Professor Crane," she answered, lowering her eyes to the floor just so she wouldn't look him in the eyes when she said his name.

 _"Yes, so my dear, please be careful and I shall see you tomorrow."_

"Same. Good night." Hanging up, she locked eyes with Jonathan once again, silence between them until he was the first to break it.

"Why didn't you tell him I was here?" An eyebrow was cocked.

She rolled her eyes. "Would I have given you the heads up?"

He chuckled and shook his head. "I don't suppose so, nor would it give them time to make it here if they did." Her eyes widened, and she backed into the counter. Crane laughed again. "Oh, no fear, Elizabeth. As I said before, you're leaving in a matter of days. I just couldn't let you handle returning to the painful past alone."

Elizabeth laughed now. "So, you found your chance to escape just to go back home with me just because my dead father prompted you? What's this to you?" _He wants to look out for you,_ her mind told her. _You know he's telling the truth. After eight years, you can't go back on your trust now._

"It's everything. In fact, I believe I deserve a break from Gotham for however long it takes for you to take your time with the will and the likes."

Well, that made sense enough. She sure was risking her job for this; this was all she had left for herself, and she had no backup for her life if she lost it all for aiding and abetting an escaped prisoner, nevermind that he was the man who taught her back in school. "Well, I have work in the morning, and since you're here, let's have some dinner first. You can have the couch for the night. Do you like bean and bacon soup?"


	11. Travel Companion

Chapter Eleven

Travel Companion

He had to admit Elizabeth's apartment was very sweet and elegant, not modest or lavish. Instead of a modern electronic clock, he saw a stately and statuesque, old-fashioned Victorian grandfather clock to tell the time. There was no fireplace, either, and above the table next to the front door was a candlelit photo display with the words "Live, Laugh, Love" and showcasing four photos of Elizabeth herself, her mother, an empty space that had to once include her father, and an old woman who could very much be her grandmother. The three "L" words - how laughable indeed, minus the first and last. There had been no love in his own family, and certainly none between Elizabeth and her father following her grandmother's death and mother's commitment to the nuthouse. Perhaps she kept it as a way of keeping the memories of her mother and grandmother alive, erase the father completely.

He wasn't a voyeur, but to peek in and see Elizabeth asleep in her bed, surrounded by her favorite butterfly theme, was even better than watching Sleeping Beauty in her enchanted sleep. She was so sweet and lovely. He longed to join her but feared her reaction if she woke and found him in her bed. She would never call the police on him, but she would be in absolute trouble if she was discovered harboring him in her home. He planned on going out in disguise today, return to his old hideout and recollect anything from there if Batman hadn't been there yet. _That is, if he hasn't found it yet._

It was raining in the morning, which provided a relaxing start to the morning. There was Elizabeth emerging from her bedroom in her rich blue dress suit and her hair clipped behind her head. An oddity, but he liked her hair that way. Jonathan rarely saw her with her hair off her shoulders. He had been reading _Dagon and Other Macabre Tales_ by H.P. Lovecraft - _Herbert West - Re-Animator_ \- when her boot's heels softly clicked into the kitchen where she began what he saw as a routine of hers: an egg on toast from the egg/toaster as well as coffee. Now he felt like it himself. Setting the book down, he joined her. "Good morning, Elizabeth."

"Good morning to you, Jonathan. Sleep well?"

"Hmm, better than the terrible mattress in my cell."

"I'm sorry I can't stay long, because I have to go soon," she said softly, looking up at him. "But tomorrow you have me all to yourself. How does it feel to be away from Gotham finally?"

Jonathan laughed over the rim of the coffee mug. This was his first time ever having something so...normal, waking on his own and going about whenever he felt like he wanted to. But once they returned, it was back to moving around until the Bat caught up.

"Granted I haven't even left _yet_ ," he told her as he accepted the egg-toast piece from her, "it will be extremely gratifying, to say the least." _To be free for a week, able to wander where I wish without fear of being caught._

Elizabeth leaned up and gave him a quick peck on the mouth. "My father's will is scheduled to be read the day after the funeral, as these things work out. I mean, he and I were never close, but I'm his only relative left. Chances are, as much as I'm not counting on it, he left me the house and all its properties."

He had to agree. "And if he hasn't?" He took a bite out of the delectable item and moaned in pleasure. He hadn't had something like this in AGES.

"Then I'm okay with it. I very much love my life as it is now. I don't know if I would ever change a thing. I remain here in Gotham because there is one person in particular, regardless of how the whole city sees him." Her eyes focused directly on his face said it all. Jonathan smiled and leaned down, briefly capturing her lips with his until he was forced to let her leave before she was late.

~o~

Arkham had been bustling the last two days after the massive breakout, and GCPD had done their best to get as much of the inmate back into the asylum, the Batman helping, but Harley Quinn was yet to be found.

And by the time Elizabeth had gotten home, Jonathan was in front of the television with a scowl on his face. "What is it?" she'd asked, sitting down beside him before she followed his frozen eyes to a familiar face on the screen, gaping and jerking back slightly. "Oh, God, what the hell was she thinking?"

Harley's face was mad as a junkyard dog's as she glared at the camera she personally set up herself, wherever she was now, and was now screaming rants at her "unfaithful boyfriend". _"Mistah J, who the hell have you been sneaking with behind my back, huh? On Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon, or on Mondays and Fridays in the morning or whenever and wherever you have the time, Mistah J? You are naaasssty,"_ she drawled out the last word like a siren blare. _"People of Gotham, my Mistah J's nasty behind has the nerve to have some hoes with the little large girls –"_ She pushed up both her breasts from underneath for emphasis. _"– with them tight ends –"_ A rise to spank her behind from the side. _"– to having a touchdown and a snackdown up in my bed. Your nasty ass I'm so sick of, Mistah J...!"_

"Maybe we should watch something else," Jonathan had suggested, his voice lowered and rough. Elizabeth had nodded, though her eyes were still glued furiously on the screen. How could Harley be so stupid to pull something like this off? She was in for a beatdown now...both from her AND the Joker...

 _"Mistah J, who have you had in my bed?"_ was all she'd said before Jonathan changed the channel for the both of them.

After that, she and Jonathan spent her time after work having dinner, reading together and being like two normal people, catching up like they did when she was still a student at GSU. They both loved country music, any literary genre they could grasp although Elizabeth preferred romance amongst - even paired with another like horror or comedy, or perhaps all in one which made it better. The whole time Elizabeth recaptured lost times with her former teacher, the Scarecrow lessened and slowly returned to the man who wasn't the beast the law and the average citizens deemed him as.

Now they had just touched down in the Atlanta airport, now taking a drive in their rental car she'd gotten them and driving for the town she'd been born and grew up in. Macon hadn't changed much since she left for Gotham; it was still thriving and metropolitan as she recalled; it had varied landscapes of rolling hills on the north side and flat plains on the south. In the past, Macon had many textile mills powered by the rivers. The major one that ran through and continued near her birth house was the Ocmulgee River.

The car slowed to a stop by the time they arrived at the old Dodson Estate which she'd abandoned eight years before. It was hard to believe that she had lived here her entire life before she and her father moved to Gotham in her teen years before she went off to college and he returned here to reclaim the estate; her youth here was spent surrounded by books and flowers. The mansion had been her father's, now left to her in the deed now that he was gone. Eight years since she'd seen him, never bothering to contact him.

It _was_ obvious that everything was hers now, since there were no other relatives around. Jonathan took a look at the traditional-styled southern mansion and gave it a sniff. "Not quite what I expected."

Elizabeth laughed and drove them around the vast green lawn which looked like it had been recently mowed, the other field of fabulous miscellaneous wildflowers, charming blue forget-me-nots, and a beautiful mixture of daffodils and narcissus; solid yellows and whites, bicolors of orange and white, yellow and white, orange and yellow, and pink and white. The windows were rolled down so the humid air mingled with more perfumed flowers of the gardens filled her nostrils. "What were you expecting?"

The house had two levels even though it was lavish in the historical sense of elegance, pure white with dark shutters and sectioned windows, some pillars here and there. She felt surreal being back here, but her father wasn't here any longer; his absence only made the demons even greater. Years of distance and loathing made memories more hideous than reality, quoted by the unnamed narrator of Lovecraft's _Re-Animator._

There stood a man at the front door, waiting for her as she brought the car to a park at the connected garage. She recognized him right away. "Mr. Nye? I'm Elizabeth." Richard Nye was her father's lawyer; she only met him a few times when she was younger.

He laughed shortly, a lighthearted sound. "I could tell from your father's 'Belle' description in your face."

She gave a soft smile in return and shook his hand. "Thanks for coming from Atlanta."

"Anything from Nathan. Good man, though I'm sorry you and him never quite connected. Not after your poor mother." The sincerity in both his eyes and his voice was evidently honest; his eyes then flicked over to Jonathan behind her. "Oh, I didn't know you brought a friend."

Elizabeth looked behind her. "Is that okay?" _Should have asked._

"Well, this is your house now, if you want it," Nye answered, making it easier for her to relax. "But just so you know, Nathan's trust forbids you from selling it."

"I wasn't planning to. Just keeping it on hold until I finish something in Gotham," she assured him.

Nye nodded, looking between her and Jonathan. "Well, then, I should be taking off. I'll see you at the funeral tomorrow, but I wanted to leave you the keys to the house and these papers." He handed her said keys and the envelope describing the assets she would receive as soon as the accountants signed off, as well as the form forbidding her from selling off the estate. "Your home now," he told her with a smile.

She returned it. "I have a house," she said, half to him and half to herself.

 **The meeting between Elizabeth and her father's lawyer (who I don't know is named after someone else or what XD) was inspired by a similar scene in the 2013 movie "Texas Chainsaw 3D". And Harley's raging about Joker having "hoes" behind her back was based on a character's equal raging jealousy in Tyler Perry's "Why Did I Get Married Too?" XD**

 **Also, I'm a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft's Re-Animator, in case I haven't said it before. :) I've written stories for that, too.**


	12. The Fear of Imprisonment

Chapter Twelve

The Fear of Imprisonment

The Dodson Manor came with a gated access opening to a lengthy front lawn not all different from the cornfields and savannah of his granny's crumbling old place. Jonathan had sunglasses on for the duration of the time Elizabeth and her lawyer were speaking about the arrangements - he had to curse her as soon as they got off the plane for making him wear a baseball cap and these things when they first boarded - keeping his eyes, though, mostly on Elizabeth in her vintage dress with the ruffles and eyelet lace, gracing her front figure, hips and backside. The yellow set off her brown curls so well. In both yellow and blue, she was truly a belle of the south. He smirked at the word he nearly used for Belle herself, once again.

She unlocked the glass door and was the first one in. Taking off his shades, Crane took in his new surroundings with another sniff. The walls were white with enormous, customized moldings and a polished dark floor with squared white spots serving as checkered, the staircase spiraling upwards with the steps covered with a dark floral carpeting. He had to admit that he was stunned to think that his former pupil had been born and grown up in this place far better than he; the jealousy returned as a result.

"I don't even know where to start," she spoke quietly as she put the keys and envelope down on the oak table beneath the antique gold wall mirror.

Jonathan found himself staring down a hallway to their left, leading into an opened space which was the living/sitting area. More moldings of the ceiling and walls, this time the walls being buttery yellow, and the furniture custom-made Louis XVI inspiration, all sitting atop English rose carpeting. Hydrangeas were planted in various colors about, but it was the portrait of the woman far off near the airy window that caught his attention. Moving closer, he saw the woman bore a great resemblance to Elizabeth, and she wore an old-fashioned rose gown, her dark hair shorter and curled thicker. _Her mother._

There was another doorway to his left, leading straight into a dining area with more luxury. The carpet, however, was lattice and average. The deep rose painted walls were hung with different murals of various scenery, a luxurious crystal chandelier suspended over the glass table with its wrought-iron chairs seating five people. _Goodness, how many rooms downstairs will I find in one day?_ Crane wondered with a chuckle as he found himself staring into a warm and rustic kitchen with pale honey oak cupboards, drawers and so forth, the island in the center surfaced with slate granite, and the floor Tuscan stone. And at the far end was a door leading out to...

There was the sound of crying heard and a mild crash. "Elizabeth!" he shouted as he dashed back in the direction he came in until he came to the foyer and found her kneeling beside their luggage, on her knees and her face in her hands. He'd never seen her like this before; he rushed over to her side and helped her sit at the bottom of the stairs. She didn't look up, continued to sob while covering her face.

"Elizabeth, please tell me what is wrong."

"I-I-I don't know...if I can...take this..." she whispered, shaking her head and finally looking up at him. "I thought I could, but now...I don't know."

Returning to the place of her past proved harder than thought. It was to be expected if one grew up in the environment she had. Jonathan sat down beside her, their roles switched so that she was the patient and _he_ was the doctor again. "It's going to be fine," he assured her. "Going back to the past is always difficult."

Her reddened eyes narrowed slightly. "I'm your doctor, not the other way around," she reminded him, her feistiness returning. He chuckled and brushed some hair out of her face.

"And I was once your professor. You may be my therapist at Arkham, but not here, my pet. You're obviously suffering a rush of the memories returning to you, and I promised you I would be here, so here we are. And I'm telling you that you will get through this no matter what." He helped her rise to her feet and guided her towards the hallway which he had come through. "Now, let's get you something to eat first." Crane seated her at the island in the faded oak chair, moving for the refrigerator down the end to the doorway, which he noticed led to the swimming pool and the backyard. Opening the fridge, he found something enough to serve as a snack for now, gathering cheese, an apple, and some blackberries as well as water from the sink, setting them down in front of her. She did eat it, taking it slow, but the plate was eventually cleaned save for the core of the apple, and she gulped down the water in one chug. "Not exactly a good homecoming," he said, purely out of habit. _Of course it's not._

She didn't say anything, just stood and turned away. "Day's almost over. I'm gonna take a shower and unpack." He watched her go without another word.

~o~

Here, before her, was the room which had been hers as a child and still the same as she left it. Elizabeth deposited her suitcase beside the canopy bed still washed with sheer white; beside it, the nightstand was covered with an Old English rose cloth and the Blue Willow lamp. The two windows draped with striped yellow and blue were opened to reveal a setting sun. It had been a long day, and being back turned out to be not so easy.

Elizabeth sat down on the bedside and rubbed her eyes, sighing loudly. She cursed herself for breaking down in front of Jonathan like that. Yet she wanted him to see, because if it were anyone else, they would just tell her to suck it up as she'd been so good at doing her whole life. Despite the monster everyone saw him as and as he made himself out to be, he actually understood her better than Bruce, better than Dick and Barbara and any others she'd known. She felt herself getting closer to him more and more.

 _NO!_ her mind screamed at her. _You may like him and care about him, see him as the man who taught you in college, find his Ichabod Crane resemblance a strange sort of cute, but he's still your patient! He's not even legally fit to reenter society yet!_

 _But if I can still get him out,_ her other half reasoned. _Then maybe after that we can talk about a future together._

Carrying her aqua rush and cherry blossom shampoo and conditioner, body lotion and wash, Elizabeth made way for her personal bathroom which was more fashioned like paradise instead of southern luxury. The shower was a shadowed, closed-door area next to the sandstone bathtub of marble. Elizabeth stripped and laid her clothes on the golden counter. Turning on the golden knob, hot water and steam filled the stall and welcomed her inside after a long day of flying.

Elizabeth thought she was going to fall asleep on her feet as her muscles and bones loosened from the tension of being couped on the plane as well as her earlier panic attacks. She loosened the knots her hair created under the stream, the smell of water and blossoms in the air, natural and sweet at the same time. The matching body wash soon followed, and once she was finished, she turned off the shower and stepped out to grab the towel off the rack in the shower stall, drying off and dressing up in the robe and gown set she brought with her that she didn't wear often but loved anyways.

 _For blissful days and blissful nights..._ Liquid blue gown paired with a robe swirling with a mystical animal print. It made her feel like the Nile Princess herself. She gave herself a twirl as she dried out much of her hair with the towel and draped it over the tub, opening the door and came face-to-face with the burlap mask that made her scream, and that was the last thing she saw before a hand was slapped over her mouth. She was spun around so her back was pressed to his body, and a needle jammed into her neck.

~o~

"You look so beautiful tonight, Elizabeth," Scarecrow told her as he carried her struggling and sobbing to her bed, laying her against the exquisite, virginal white lace covers - _pure as she was before it was taken from her_. Scarecrow had it in him now to take over Jonathan Crane completely and managed to get out the syringe of his latest batch of fear toxin he'd made while they were in Gotham, two days before today when she left for work unknowing what he was up to. Jonathan regretted deceiving her, but Scarecrow was impatient and couldn't wait any longer to discover what the fearless Elizabeth Dodson actually feared unknown to the rest of the world.

Indeed, she was beautiful in the liquid blue satin gown and magical robe, amid white to match her lost sexual purity, but that was not all. She was beautiful in her _fear_. "Oh, I'm sorry it had to be this way, my dear," Scarecrow crooned, brushing a hand against her cheek, making her flinch and jerk her face away from him. "But I promise this will be quick if only you tell me what you're seeing."

"Get away from me," she ground out, her head suddenly jerking back and forth with brute force, almost breaking her neck. "Get away!"

He laughed. "Oh, silly of me, you hate my mask. I'm a monster to you." He reached up and removed the burlap sack and hat to expose his face. "There, this is the face you prefer over the beast that I am. It should make things easier now. Tell me now, Elizabeth..." He leaned in, breath hot against her face. "... _what do you fear?_ "

The response he gave her was both surprising and shocking altogether, not wholly unexpected but also not what he imagined.

"No, I won't go there! I won't join the crazies! Not because I care about them - and not because of Mama!" He was taken aback by her sudden determination. She was supposed to cry like a little girl like the other subjects before her, but no. She _was_ terrified, but she was also strong-willed and determined to fight it off. What happened to her mother had driven her to become a psychiatrist and help the crazies, not simply lock them away - but with that determination came a great fear of being locked up as her mother had been. She must have believed that because of her pure love of helping people insane or not, she might end up becoming one of them someday. Except she never wholly been afraid, just closed it down and forced the vehicle that was her mind forward to what was in front of her regardless of the obstacles called stop lights and stop signs of panic.

"That's it, Lizzie." The pet name Harley and Wayne used was sweet and young on his tongue; she would probably hate it, no doubt. It would make her sound and feel like she was in grade school again. "I will be here by your side. Conquer your fear, like the strong woman you are. What happened to your dear mother will never happen to you. You are too good to endure what I and the others have. You must move on from the past - your mother and your deceitful love - if you want to proceed with what is in front of you for the sake of your future. Never mind the uncertainty ahead of you...believe in yourself and defeat the demons of your subconscious once and for all."

Her innocent brown eyes were so full of terror, the light in them too bright for the normal sunlight that had warmed his very core. Scarecrow was slowly subsiding and allowing him back into the driver's seat. "Please, Elizabeth," he begged. "Conquer your fear."

Jonathan said no more as he watched her convulse, baring and clenching her teeth together, eyes squeezing shut. He kept track of the time. Ten minutes were already up, the effects fading in the event of time. She was living up to his encouragement; her suffering had gone on long enough that she had to face it on her first day back in the house of her birth.

Another scream tore from her, and her body arched up before dropping down again. Jonathan hadn't lied when he said that she was beautiful when she was scared. Her eyes were filled with the water of dread, and her screams were country music to his ears. And then she surprised him once more. "Jonathan...I failed you..."

"No, you haven't," he tried to tell her, reaching and grasping her hand. _Failed at what?_ "I'm here."

"I failed to save you, failed to get you out of Arkham..."

His mind was swirling like a twister. Was _that_ what she was afraid of? She _wanted_ him to get out of Arkham Asylum; she wanted him to have a normal life. He scoffed internally; normalcy was an illusion, but to think of a life with her...

Her howls brought his attention back to her. "No, no, no! No, I won't let you take him away from me! I won't let you!" One of her arms struck out and almost did the same to him; Jonathan stepped back to avoid it. She fell back against the bed then, and her cries were no more, replaced with soft fits of laughter of triumph. He allowed a small one to escape his own lips, sharing it with her while she was nearing the end of her hallucinogenic state.

Finally, Jonathan looked down at his watch. Time was up. Her crying had decreased, her breathing slow and steady, and the creases in her eyelids softened as she slowly came back to herself. "Elizabeth?" he asked gently, leaning over her just as her eyes popped opened. They were red from the crying, yet they were also fiery. Fiery with rage, disgust...and betrayal.

"What did you do to me?" she hissed, throwing out a hand and striking him across the face.

~o~

Too many emotions were jumbled in her mind and her whole body as she slowly regained herself and glared up at the man over her while she lay in her own bed, feeling helpless but slowly regaining her strength. _He_ \- _he poisoned me. He drugged me and invaded my deepest, private secrets. He saw I'm afraid to fail, afraid of being locked up with him and the others without so much as asking me himself. He BETRAYED our trust._

 _And broke my heart._

She'd also hit him. She hit him, it was the first time, and yet she felt good because of what he'd just done to her. Her face was wet with both perspiration on her forehead and tears across her cheeks. "How could you do this to me?" She saw the look on his face - a range from stun to sadness and regret, but also remnants of twisted pleasure as _Scarecrow_ watched her writhe in her delusions. Scarecrow had been there, not Jonathan. Elizabeth had struck the man who had been her teacher and her companion while she was here for her father's funeral, for the first time; it wounded both her and him, but it also made him regret his "mistake".

 _No, a mistake happens one time. More than once is pathological. He's done this to other people against their will, so now is no exception. I have been patient and tolerable of his experiments long enough. Bartholomew was right; I should have been on my guard. It was a mistake bringing him here._

"I did this for you," he responded, rubbing his face. "You never told me your fear directly, so I found out for myself. And you progressed much faster than I anticipated."

Elizabeth bolted up in her bed, making him slide backwards. "P-progress?! You're treating me like I'm one of your test subjects! I'm your doctor!"

He let out a harsh laugh; however, it wasn't wholly cruel, just...hurt? "Doctor? I believe now that we are far from Gotham, we are past that stage now. I always thought we were more than just doctor and patient, beyond friends even."

"Sweethearts, then?" Elizabeth spat. "Sweethearts _never_ betray the other's trust! All this time, _I_ thought _I_ was making progress with _YOU!_ " Now his face was of pure shock and disbelief. _Bull's eye, he feels it now. The great Master of Fear finally knows what it's like to break that bond of trust with someone who finally treated him like a human being for his own sick amusement. Why did I trust him? After eight years and after what we were growing to cherish within Arkham's walls!_

She jumped off the bed, more than ready to go to the police station and stay there to call the asylum, then maybe the police there ready to finally take him back in. He was a legally insane madman on the run; now she regretted ever remaining in Gotham. At least here in Georgia she could have lived in peace. Gotham and the crazies - including this man whom she had let her feelings get the best of for - was sweet tea with too much sour lemon to love. It was imprisonment.

"I thought you were actually more of a man than the monster you were made," she continued, stalking past him to grab her coat from her closet, then her brown flats. "For all this time, I actually believed in you. But now I realize I made a mistake. I should have turned you in to the police when I had the chance." Elizabeth hurried out of the room, down the hall and for the stairs. Jonathan's footsteps were behind her, closer than she'd heard for next she felt his hand grab her by the elbow and turn her to face him as soon as they were at the bottom of the staircase.

"Elizabeth Isabelle Dodson, if you would _please_ just listen to me -" He was definitely mad now, not intending on letting her go just like that, but she wouldn't listen to him anymore. She angrilly yanked herself from him.

"Don't you DARE use my full name to try and stop me, Jonathan Thomas Crane!" she returned hotly, running over to the table drawer where the keys and her pistol were. "I don't know why, but I can't stand to stay here another minute!"

 **Oh, damn, Jonny really did screw up, hasn't he? :(**

 **In another story I haven't read in awhile - and forgot the name and author - in the Batman Begins/Dark Knight category of this site, Thomas was Jonathan's middle name, and I thought it fit very well. :)**


	13. The Night Animals

Chapter Thirteen

The Night Animals

"ELIZABETH!" he roared out after her upon hearing the door slam shut. Jonathan forced his legs forward and opened it to rush out and after her in time to hear her. What had he been thinking after all? This was his fault, and now she was leaving him and no doubt going to the police station. Her words still rang in his ears, and they hurt far worse than Sherry Squires' aid in the cruel joke he should have seen coming.

Now Elizabeth Dodson, his Arkham therapist, ex-student and possible first love whom he had just experimented on and turned against him, was leaving him because he _did_ take advantage of her trust.

She was already in the car by the time he ran up to her, locking every door right away and jamming the key into the engine. "Elizabeth, don't leave me!" he yelled, banging his palms flat on the window. He hated being this desperate. But she ignored him and started the vehicle, sharply backing out and driving off into the road. "Damn it!" He ran back into the house to grab his canister of fear toxin, the aerosol version, and strapped it onto his wrist before racing back out of the house again. He didn't care if his race took every breath in his body; he needed to get her back and waste the last of his strength trying to make it up to her. He cursed Scarecrow for the first time in a long time for another impending loss at a chance to love.

~o~

She tried so hard to concentrate on the road; she tried keeping to the limit, but as a result of her distracted mind full of what had happened and what she planned to do now, Elizabeth was sure it would end bad. She would end up getting herself killed, but perhaps better now than later. She would rather die than live another minute of failure, as Scarecrow uncovered in her own childhood home.

Elizabeth panicked when the car suddenly swerved off the road and into a fallen tree trunk to the side of a woods section. Screaming, she tried to regain control before the face of the car crashed into the broken down wood. "DAMN IT!" she howled angrily as she nearly flew forward only to be saved by the airbag. _Not only does it cost damages, but it gets me a fine as well as no chance of getting to the cops!_ She angrily climbed out of the rental and angrily stomped her foot like a child in spite of herself. She had run away; not only that, but she had run away into an isolated part of Macon and not too far away from her home which housed a man who deceived her and violated the deep recesses of her mind, might as well drive _her_ insane and put her in with him and the rest of the nuts. He was obviously looking for her even if he was traveling on foot; if he found her, she would strangle the life out of him. She leaned her back against the car and sighed heavily, looking up at the dark navy sky just fallen. There would be nobody out here, maybe, since she didn't see any cars coming, so her luck had run out. All because of her. _Wait,_ she thought. _I'm not that far from town, but if I can find the nearest neighborhood and ask for a phone for my car and for the police..._

She turned and began to run down the direction she was heading when she heard the sound of a catcall. She spun around, half terrified, half hopeful. The half terrified conquered, for there was a large man with a mountaineer's look approaching her quickly from the woods, flashlight hitting her. Elizabeth darted back into the direction of her crashed car, not even reaching it in time when another large man stepped out in front of her; she stood no chance when she turned to run into the street whilst knowing she would not get away in time. Elizabeth shrieked when he dragged her over and tossed her onto the hood of the car. "Now you really think you can scream and run when we're far from town, little girl?"

"If you _really_ want our help, you're gonna have to pay us first," his friend said as he came up. "But I think what you got for us is much better than money." Elizabeth thrashed out her legs in an attempt to kick off the man holding her down, but his friend grabbed both her legs and held them down - and SPREAD them at the same time. Her mind was screaming at her that déjà vu was in play. She never actually screamed because her hair was grabbed in a fistful so her face was slammed into the hood for her silence. "Let me go first; I want to be the one to make her scream first -"

"No one is allowed to hear her screams but _me_ , gentlemen."

Elizabeth _knew_ that voice, managing to lift her head up to see her savior. "Jonathan!"

~o~

Never mind his lungs suffering from lack of oxygen, Jonathan was beyond vehemently furious. She dared run away and could very much get herself killed with the emotional IQ women were known to have! Jonathan was nearly out of breath by the time he was somewhere near a quarter mile from the house when a wail reached his ears. There was no other direction to turn other than the road ahead, because she couldn't have gone very far. Once he got to her, she was in for a lecture, back in the role of the misbehaving student in need of a reprimand from her teacher.

The screams had gone on for some time - the mere melody was simply marvelous - but because the woman herself was about to end up in a repeated situation from five years ago. His fear toxin was strapped to his right wrist, tight but loose to let his circulation flow freely in his veins, and ready to enter its next victims. The screams ceased when he reached the scene; he halted to a stop at the sound of his name upon making his appearance: "Jonathan!"

His name resounded through the air and his veins, his anger blowing up no longer at her, but at her attackers. Elizabeth had apparently forgotten her anger at him and called for him to help her from the man holding her against the crashed vehicle against a fallen tree trunk so his friend was about to do the obvious unthinkable. _No, I won't let half a decade ago return and take what belongs to me again!_ Jonathan moved forward and it motivated them to abandon her on the hood of the car for him.

"Hey, stick-boy, what business is this of yours?" the bearded man who had her drawled. Elizabeth wordlessly whimpered and fell to her knees.

"She's my business because you are both touching what is _MINE_ ," Jonathan replied, flicking out his wrist and spraying a vast red mist of his poison into all of their faces at the same time. "Feast on your worst fears, gentlemen, the next time you think about trying to get another helpless female in your meaty paws."

He watched the both of them scream and writhe together as one - three grown men reduced to crying infants, always satisfying - before turning to where Elizabeth was now trying to rise on the car, her back to it and her attempts to get her strength back. She flinched while keeping her eyes on him all the while. She was grateful for her rescue, but that didn't distract her from earlier events. It seemed they had a long discussion ahead of them. Jonathan was more than ready for it. "Let's go home."

She didn't fight him when he took her by the arm and began to lead her down the road back to the house. The left side of her face was darkening slightly, sure to sport a bruise very soon. Her steps shook lightly mostly from daze, but she would live. He expected her to break down again, but nothing happened. As a matter of fact, she didn't look at him at all for the rest of the walk back.

~o~

She barely acknowledged much of anything when he brought her back home just when it came to her brought to a certain room which she used to sneak off to as a child at night to be by the warm fire and read: her father's study. The carved black fireplace had been lit up warmly, and Jonathan led her over to the nearest chair. "Stay here," he ordered, seating her down and leaving her alone.

Elizabeth didn't move while he was gone. The side of her face that was bruised was stinging, but it would go away soon. The pain added with the stress of being back in his presence, but her mind was once again conflicted. He'd just saved her life; she shouldn't be all the way that mad with him now. _But we're still going to discuss it sooner or later. I can't call the police from here; he'll find out eventually, and who knows what worse he'll do to me._ She leaned back and looked up at him when he returned.

"Here now," he said, kneeling in front of her with the cloth he'd run under cold water. She lowered her eyes to the floor, not wanting to look at him while he dabbed her cheek with the cold fabric; Elizabeth hissed sharply from the mild pain that followed, but he was gentle with her. "There, it's not that bad," he cooed softly, the sound soothing but irritating at the same time. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" she asked sharply. "For poisoning me or betraying my trust?"

"Both," he answered coolly, the shell of professional care slowly fading. "The same thing."

Elizabeth really felt like crying now; she wanted him to see the pain he caused her, and those pigs who tried to harm her weren't the cause since they didn't do it all the way. She turned her head away from him, sobbing openly now and wrapping her arms around herself. The big tough girl was gone, replaced by a little one injured after falling off her bike. "I wanted to help you. I actually cared about you, and you did _that_ to me, after years of an established bond of trust. I'm starting to lose hope in you now. How do you want to even leave Arkham if you're going to continue that sick stuff on people who did nothing to you? Most notably ME? I thought you would never hurt me like you did to _her_."

He said nothing, just continued to watch her as he allowed her to release another tirade onto him; his face was calm, but his dark eyes were shining with a blaze of negative emotions even when she mentioned the hint of Sherry Squires. "I'm your...maybe girlfriend, but we're playing it on the professional side for the world to see," she whispered. "I'm not one of those who harmed you. If you're going to experiment, do it on someone who actually hurt you, or someone else who did the same to another helpless individual."

Jonathan actually looked like he was considering; she felt her hopes begin to rise again. She wouldn't sink back into the foolish child role until she knew for sure. "I'm well aware of what I did to you, and I greatly apologize," was all he said. Smooth and low, but meaningful. Elizabeth smiled and took his free hand into hers. It was like they were in the moment of _Beauty and the Beast_ , after the Beast rescued Belle from the wolves and he was wounded; she took him back and cared for his injuries, a beginning of their friendship and eventual love.

"Thank you for saving me."

"Your welcome." Nearly black orbs met soft brown, never breaking contact and sparking a fire greater than the one burning beside them. The fire which had been burning without care for six months, perhaps longer.


	14. Burning Summer Desire

Chapter Fourteen

Burning Summer Desire

The service seemed to last forever, mostly because Elizabeth privately told him she wished it was over and done with so they could go back to the house, for her to change and they could go out and do something for the day. She had six more days to clear things up and then return. The funeral services were held outdoors, the cherry coffin with her father's body sprayed with an abundant of assorted yellow flowers to evoke the summer's day and warming sunshine, offering comfort and hope during this "time of loss".

Jonathan stood by Elizabeth's side the whole time, once again in sunglasses but never taking his eyes of Elizabeth, whose little black dress with the lace bodice and sheer skirt made her appear like a much younger woman attending her first date, her long brown locks swirling around her sweet face, her eyes also hidden by shades so no one detected how she truly felt about the death of her own father. A lot of everyone in town remembered her, but not everyone missed her, it seemed. She'd left as a younger woman and attended another university, after all.

When the funeral was over, he took her back to the cab she'd paid for them both, the story for their rental being that she'd tried driving to town last night for a few things only for a deer to suddenly appear out of nowhere and cause her to lose track and go off the road. Since last night, they'd been closer than ever.

"I'm tired," she announced as soon as they were inside the cab, nodding for the driver to take them home. "Let's go back to the house."

To the house they went, where they vanished to her father's old study and engrossed in a few books, such as _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_ and _The Phantom of the Opera_. It was during the second that he noticed her mouth parted slightly and her breathing shallow. She then launched herself off the sofa and ran out the door. Jonathan heard the sound of a door slamming shut, assuming she'd confided to the washroom. He frowned; what could be wrong with her? He had little experience with women other than the basics thanks to Nygma and Tetch. Jonathan decided to find out the true reason her sudden departure, setting down one of the greatest romance horrors of all time and walking out to stand in the hallway, waiting for Elizabeth to come out.

She stepped out in what felt like fifteen minutes but were actually six. The white dress she'd changed into was a classic and timeless design with all-over lace and a subtle V-neck. _Truly young and beautiful_ , he thought with a smile, until he saw her blushing face. "Elizabeth?"

"Oh, Jonathan!" She looked up at him but avoided direct eye contact. She wrapped her arms around herself and looked down. "Um, it's the first day of my...and I forgot my pads in Gotham..."

He blinked three times before he realized the true meaning. His cheeks flushed with heat at the almost colorful description of her femininity. "Oh, yes, well, I'll call another cab and see what I can do." _Why am I being such an awkward schoolboy? I'm a doctor of psychology for goodness sake!_

Elizabeth remained in the study with him for the duration of the time until the cab arrived for him and he bid her good-bye before leaving. The air was humid and hot in the summertime - Georgia was _always_ hot and humid, especially in Arlen - but Macon was kind to him for a day, especially with the crisp light blue shirt he'd kept after the funeral, and faded jeans loose on his legs and held up by a belt. But Macon provided more thrive than the small, truly devilish town of his youth. He managed around well despite never being here in his life, and the driver offered to wait for him until he was finished.

The clerk gave him quite the look and a "joke" that made him blush redder and hotter than from the sun's heat when he commented that he must "know your daughter well enough to know what she needs." He heartily agreed, but the mere idea of Elizabeth and her menstrual cycle was a little more than he could tolerate especially when this employee had no idea that he was not married and had no children, that this was for a young woman who was his therapist and sweetheart. He refused to use the juvenile term "girlfriend". _Blast the fool, I wish I could gas him for this humiliation._

~o~

How could she have lost track of her period? She hadn't had cramps yet before like she normally did, and her breasts didn't ache. But then again it came without warning or preparation at times. _Or maybe it was just all of this that's gotten me distracted: the funeral, last night._ She felt her lower body ache and decided she needed a shower and a lie-down for awhile. Elizabeth walked up the stairs painfully, adding more pressure to her abdomen and groin area, but she forced herself to continue as soon as she reached her room; she'd let Jonathan have the master bedroom that had been her father's.

Elizabeth stopped at the doorway upon seeing the plastic white bag on her bed, nearly camouflaged to the point of not seen. Walking over, Elizabeth sat down - she wrapped some toilet paper beneath her to prevent anymore heavy bloodflow for now - and began to pull out the items she'd asked for: Super-Plus Tampax and Midol. She placed them all underneath the sink, but the pills in the medicine cabinet. While waiting for the bathwater to warm up - she decided to lie instead of stand - Elizabeth looked her body over in the mirror. She didn't have the typical model form, but appealing enough without being narcissistic.

Now that she was refreshed, she considered slipping back into her dress as it was light and comfortable enough, though she still feared getting blood on the delicate white fabric and instead settled on her robe. But the first thing she did that she felt like doing was walking over to the table against the space between both windows overlooking the backyard. First there was the wedding picture of both her parents, how young and happy they appeared to be on the surface, but if you looked into the eyes of Giselle Dodson, you'd see a deep sadness over everything she was forced to give up at the demands of her domineering husband.

The only upside about her young mother was how she looked like a modern Scarlet O'Hara on that day. _Modern in that time._ Her dark hair had been sleeked into a simple bun at the back of her head, the dress itself dreamy and made of embroidered tulle lined with silk and finely finished with delicate Venice laces reminiscent of antique tatting. Dainty little buttons closed the front and completed the look of a Victorian era wedding gown. Not the style her daughter would have worn for herself, but she'd been so beautiful in spite of everything she'd gone through. Beside the old photograph was the very fantasy come true that hadn't been the case for Nathan and Giselle Dodson; the horse and carriage of Cinderella was made of spun-glass and enchanting as the tale it was from. Elizabeth loved the very idea that dreams can come true, but Belle was whom she'd always been related to.

Finally there was the one thing she'd kept all her treasures in as a child but couldn't bring with her to her new life. It had seemed that when she left, she'd been so set forth on her future that she'd forgotten her past. This jewelry box was made of Tiffany stained glass, depicting a delicate and graceful butterfly in all shades of blue, featuring jewels and a sculpted butterfly on the lid. When it opened, it played _The Wind Beneath My Wings_ and bore the inscription under the lid: _You are a treasured jewel to cherish forever._

Elizabeth gasped at the "old" treasures previously mentioned. Some jewels she hadn't worn since she was a teenager but were still in perfect shape, but there was one more important that she had to hold dearly. Her mother's ring, which was inspired by a ring once actually owned by Princess Diana before she died. _With her elegant manner and grace, it is no wonder she is one of the most respected women of the twentieth century,_ Elizabeth thought with a smile, holding the gem between her forefinger and thumb. As a little girl, she always imagined wearing her mother's ring on her wedding day, and after she'd died, that dream grew and grew until she was an adult and put all childish thoughts aside completely, regretfully this included. This gorgeous ring was handcrafted in lavishly detailed sterling silver, but this time it was shimmering with an impressive round-cut aquamarine. _I'm sorry I forgot, Mama,_ she thought to the heavens.

"Penny for your thoughts?" She jumped at the sound of Jonathan's voice in her doorway. Whirling around, she saw him standing there and nodded for him to come in, just wanting to show him out of pure need, she supposed. "Lovely ring."

"Oh, this was my mother's," Elizabeth said as she presented it to him. "I always imagined wearing something like this on my wedding day; she'd promised she'd pass it down to me, and..." She trailed off, sniffling, her eyes glassy. "...she gave it to me before she was shipped off to the asylum."

Jonathan took it from her and held it to his eyes, analyzing it like the scientist he was. "Impressive. It seems like it will fit you, but how can we be sure?" He gave her a sneaky smile and it set off her nerves in a mixed wave. She started to say something, unsure what to think, as he took her left hand then and slipped the ring around _that_ finger.

Elizabeth stared at it, amazed, at how the jewel that was once her mother's, before her a world-famous royal who died tragically trying to get away from something she hated with a passion which passed down to her son, shone magnificently around her ring finger as though it were her own. _And it was_ him _who put it on,_ she thought, looking once more into the dark, depthless eyes of the man who now began to make her heart skip beats faster than before.

~o~

Seeing the ring on her hand was...he didn't know how to describe it. Jonathan remembered very clearly that he'd wanted nothing to do with a woman who didn't respect his ideals, but with her, seeing her mother's ring was slowly changing that. He had no idea what came over him other than the fact that he'd only wanted to see how it looked on her. _It's beautiful,_ he thought with a smile, looking first at the aquamarine and then her face. _But not as beautiful as her._

Jonathan was familiar with the infamous ring worn by Princess Diana in another time; she was world-famous, how could he not know? It wasn't surprising that the same jewel would be redesigned for other women envious to have their own, so for Elizabeth's mother to wear it and then pass it down to her young daughter for when her time came...it dawned on him that he was well at the start of his fourth decade and still alone. She was in her mid-twenties and still single, too, but she was young, energetic, her whole life ahead of her. It made his hardened heart begin to melt and shrivel then.

 _I'm getting older, but I don't want to die that way and alone._

"Tell me what kind of wedding you dreamed of as a little girl," he said, his voice low to his own ears. He allowed her to remove her hand from his and set her palm flat on the table surface, looking down.

"The big castle, cookie-cutter fairytale wedding where I'm in the big ballgown and tiara, bedecked out and shining, my prince waiting for me at the altar," she answered, her voice light and dreamy, before it gave out and became more serious. "But when I grew up, I stopped thinking about it so much and instead focused on my career than my personal life. My own and first Prince Charming betrayed me because I always had my nose in a book, remember?"

"Continue."

"But now..." Elizabeth paused right there, her brows knitting together deep in thought as she tried to return to what every young woman dreamed of but she long ago stopped dwelling on for more important matters at hand. "...now I think I still want that magical feeling, but at the same time, I want to be an independent woman. I want the ceremony to have that abundant romantic feel, under an opened roof and soft lighting, rose petals down the aisle so that it isn't too fussy but still classic love. I don't want the big, poofy princess gown; I want a mermaid fit-and-flare to show off my body, still classic and sophisticated, shining without being overwhelming. Since I still want that _Beauty and the Beast_ theme, I want the reception space to also have the abundant romance without being lavish, and the cake present to have that theme present." By then she was looking him square in the eyes, a small nervous smile on her small, plump lips. "I want it to be the best day of my life and the man of my life."

Jonathan wasn't sure how long he'd been holding his breath while he processed this information. When he exhaled, his heart began to thump faster than before. The images conjured up brought forth how he envisioned her in the white dress - and he standing before her as he placed the ring on her finger and claimed her as his own.

~o~

She'd told him her dream wedding. For a moment, Elizabeth had felt so nervous in revealing those personal details, because...well, as much as she was scared to admit it, it was him she wanted as her Prince Charming even though it was impossible. She didn't want to deny it any longer, but she didn't want to admit it to him either. Because if she actually told him and it was really true when you speak the words aloud, everything comes crashing down especially when you're in the situation they were in now: she was still his doctor, and he was still her patient at a mental asylum.

But here, they were just two people hiding from the rest of the world. He was helping her get through settling back into the town she'd born and grown up in, in the same state they were both conceived. Two people who knew they needed the other.

Elizabeth was feeling better by the fourth day of her period, the flow lessening as the days passed as well as the cramps and nausea. They were returning to Gotham in three more days, yet for some reason she didn't _want_ to go back. She wanted to spend more time with Jonathan. _And I am officially the owner of this house, but there's still work to finish. Once I'm done, I'll return here with Jonathan. He deserves a fresh start from that dismal place. I can probably start a private practice here of my own._

Since her body wasn't aching much anymore, Elizabeth decided she could use a swim in the backyard. The back pool included an outdoor kitchen in blue and white, the feel of a desert oasis in summer. Wearing her robe only - she didn't need a swimsuit since no one was anywhere near the estate to become a peeping tom from the bushes and trees that hid this small paradise from the rest of the world - she stepped out the back door of the kitchen so she smelled the sweet fragrance of the various exotic lilies in the backyard around the pool; all beautiful and delicate, some were white with pink edges, others pure white, light pink, and rosy red edged with white. There was a thick hedge of cherry-red roses that went from the back and around to the front, and vice versa, serving as a natural fence in replacement of a real one. Elizabeth assumed Jonathan was somewhere in the house doing whatever he did best, opened the blue sash of her robe and opened it to show bare skin and leaving little to the imagination. Humid air and soft breeze raised the goosebumps on her skin and made her shudder. However, the sooner she stepped out into the warm sunshine beating down on the ivory canvas that was her body and drenched her long hair with its humid companion, she heard the sound of a door opening behind her. Whipping her head around, she saw Jonathan standing there, and her heart skipped beats as she hurriedly covered her chest across with one arm and the other down to cover her crotch as she just stood there and looked down to the ground, ashamed.

~o~

Jonathan had been surprised that morning to find her not around the house, not even in the study or her room even. Out of pure assumption, he decided to check the kitchen and see if she was there. Upon arriving, she _was_ there, but not in the kitchen itself. Jonathan saw her through the window, slipping her robe off and stepping into the sunlight, offering - to his surprise - her naked back and rear to him.

Jonathan felt a slight red creep into his cheeks. He had never seen her like that before, yet it began to stir up the feelings he'd had that was sexual attraction. No longer could he fight it off because he wanted her; however, was _she_ ready? Their stage was not even close to the romance that the fairytales and other works portrayed, but this had been long enough in his book, and Elizabeth was standing out in her backyard, in open air for the world to see, naked as the day she left her mother's womb. He cleared his throat and unbuttoned the first three buttons of his shirt, opened the door and stepped out, getting her attention at once and making her spin around, her brunette mane whipping around behind her and gasping as she saw him, her hands quickly covering her private parts as she faced him full-front.

Her cheeks were a brilliant rose red to match his own; at the same time, she was keeping a struggling straight face. The idea of a man seeming to never see her naked clearly matched his never seeing another woman that way made him relieved if only slightly. They stared at each other for a moment before he decided to break the silence for both their sakes. "Good morning."

"Good morning," she repeated. "I assumed you weren't in the house."

"I was looking for you," he answered. "And I never assumed you'd be this way..." He gestured her up and down, making her face redder and her posture rigid. Then she lowered her face to the ground; it was as if she looked at him any longer, she'd lose her mind. _I won't let her lose her mind over this. She needs to enjoy this. She has nothing to be ashamed about; look at her._ Her slim figure with flared hips, her breasts filling a perfect B-cup, and through the hand between her legs, you could still see whisps of the dark patch of hair of her femininity. Jonathan twitched in a certain part of his own anatomy as he crossed the threshold until he was right in front of her.

"Elizabeth, don't be shy. Please look at me." When she didn't, he placed his fingers underneath her chin and gently forced her to do. Anxiety ruled those soft brown eyes, and his heart sank. How could he make it up to her and make her forget whatever thoughts were running through her mind at the present?

"I'm ashamed," she whispered.

Jonathan smiled down at her. "Don't be, child. Let me take care of you." There was no going back now; he could see it in her eyes: she wanted him as much as he wanted her, despite the warning bells of any regrets they would have after this was over. Looking around them, he considered taking her back into the house and taking her in either her room or the master, before deciding against it, planning their first time to be under the summer sun, the heat raising the temperature of the desire that had taken a good while to burn. "Don't be afraid of this." He took her arm from her chest to expose her beautiful breasts to his eyes; his throat constricted.

"I'm not afraid."

"It is perfectly normal to be so when it is your first time." He removed her other hand to expose the dark mound at the juncture of her thighs, and he took his attention from that completely to look at her face. "But you should never always let it control you, because it prevents you from enjoying anything, such as this." His hands moved down to squeeze her quivering hips; her skin was so warm, so supple and firm. He moved forward so their bodies were touching, and he didn't let her go. Her hands were on his chest now, and she was still looking at him with those soft brown eyes. _This soft body so close to mine..._ Jonathan wanted to taste her, wanted to dominate her and get that power he had over those who feared him, but now, at the same time, he still wanted to make her happy.

"Jonathan?" Elizabeth's fingers were now working on unbuttoning his shirt to expose his skeletal frame differing from her irresistible curves; he stopped her with his hands moving from her hips to her hands. Her pupils dilated, and he could feel her heart pounding in her chest.

"I can't let you see me," he confessed. "I'm not exactly...in the best shape."

She leaned up and pecked a kiss on his chin. "I don't care," she whispered, sliding her hands from his to finish the job and opening the white shirt to show his torso emaciated from years of inactivity and malnutrition. He turned his head away, not wanting to look at her face - and then she surprised him by leaning in and wrapping her lips around his right nipple, sucking lightly and moving onto its partner. Jonathan moaned; this had never been done to him before, and it felt incredible.

"Ahh, you're doing well," he murmured as his hand slid up her back and caressed her flawless skin. "Say my name, Elizabeth; saying the name is the drive through the heart during intimacy."

"Jonathan."

Her voice was like a mantra, caressing his own ears, flesh and heart, heating the blood in every system. Jonathan closed the distance between them by leaning over and capturing her lips in the exact manner as their first. His hardness strained in his pants and ached to enter a certain place not much different from his own save for stretching for insertion for him, followed by heat and moist. Too much for him that he ordered her to lay down on the grass, facing him. She obeyed and laid on her back, the sun beating down, her skin glowing too bright for his vision that he missed certain parts of her body except for down there. Jonathan climbed on top of her and settled on kissing her again. He wanted the first time to be gentle for her as much as she did, so he wasn't planning to rush so soon. He shrugged his shirt the rest of the way off; the rest of him he didn't want her to see just yet, only feel.

Elizabeth writhed beneath him. "Please don't hurt me," she begged, like a child wanting the attention of her parent. He chuckled and leaned down to kiss her again, shifting his hips so his pelvis aligned with hers. The tip of his erection pressed through her and found the exquisitely sensitive nub beneath the curls; she gasped at the sudden sensation of pleasure. "Not like..."

He knew what she was going to say. "I'm not him," he said firmly, ending their lip-lock. "Please remember that." Sans that horrid memory, the thought itself made him repeat the act. _Delicious, she's never been touched by another man since then, nor has she thought about doing it on herself, I imagine. How wonderful. I'm her first as she is mine._

"Oh, Jonathan, yes!"

"And here it goes, my pet," he rasped, his throat suddenly parched and thirsty, but not for water, lemonade, tea, or any beverage in the house, just for her. He entered Elizabeth in one slow thrust. Her little cry was brief, followed by whimpers and a shift of her hips against his, urging him to move forward. Jonathan groaned and complied, moving in and out slowly, four times while savoring her warmth and wetness engulfing him. "Ah, Elizabeth, you feel so..." No longer was he able to form coherent words; his researching into the topic taught him the difficulty to form proper sentences was bound to happen, so he said no more, settling on growls and groans of her name as he began to pick up speed at her begging.

" _Jonathan...!_ " His name from her mouth was music compared to the soulful country they loved with equal passion. No going back now; the trip down this path was too far to turn back the opposite direction. He began to thrust faster into his lover, grabbing both her wrists and pinning them on either side of her head. Her legs wrapped around his waist, drawing him in closer and closer until he couldn't hold anymore and thrust home, his seed hot inside her, and she followed not long after, her fluids coating him heavy and hotter than perspiration from intolerable heat. Groaning as he emptied the last of himself into her, Jonathan slowly withdrew himself from her and laid down beside her. However, he stopped as soon as he detected a glowing red fluid coming out from between her legs. _She's bleeding. Common to bleed after a woman's first time, but no, this is heavier than that..._

And then it dawned on him. "Oh, dear, you..."

Her cheeks flushed. "Yes, but it ends tomorrow. I'm so sorry, Jonathan."

He laughed and leaned down, kissing her. "Don't apologize. It is only natural. I'm only relishing the fact I first made love to my doctor and first ever caring woman in the world."

Elizabeth grinned at him. "Didn't you just lose yours to me, then?"

"Certainly. We're on the same page, it seems." An idea dawned on him. "Would you feel up for a second time inside the house?"

Her brows furrowed for a moment before they softened, and she nodded. "Only this time tie my hands to the head of the bed while you kiss me from head to toe, then go down between my legs and tease me until I beg you to perform your magic with your mouth." He groaned at the colorful images popping into his mind and the arousal returning just like that.


	15. Hope Has a Place

Chapter Fifteen

"Hope Has a Place"

Elizabeth's body ached after the second round in her room; this was the good kind of ache, though, and it made her laugh to think that she was having a hard time walking around the house now. First in her own backyard where it hurt at first until it got better, and the second time in her bedroom and she was tied to the headboard while he teased her with his mouth before entering a second time, not painful like before. This wasn't something her mother was obviously around to teach her, and she couldn't ask her father, so she had to read about it herself as well as confide in her female elementary teachers and middle school until she was in high school and only took to reading it as a hobby and mental imagery for certain favorite characters in her stories rather than herself with someone else.

Dressing up in the bathroom after applying a new feminine pad - jeans and a blue flannel shirt opening to reveal a white blouse - Elizabeth looked over to see Jonathan doing the same and looking up to see her, smirking but saying nothing. What was there to say? No words did what had transpired between them justice other than the fact that they'd taken a big risk that had been worth it. But while it made her happy, it also scared her. One of the most important things in life regarding these things - whatever it really was, to be honest - was to ensure that you know for sure this person was really the one you feel something for and you know for sure this is your special someone.

 _Well...maybe he_ is _special because he was a virgin like I was, he's older than me but he treats me different than he did his test subjects. His research and his genius are his motivating factors like my love of helping people and for books is. We have lots of things in common, but is he_ really _the one for me for the rest of our lives? Everything is so blurred because of how things are now._

Elizabeth walked up and kissed his cheek. "I'm going downstairs."

"To do what?" he asked as he watched her stop at the door, turn back and wink at him mischievously.

"Something I forgot to do before my 'swim'."

What she'd forgotten to do was to bring some of the lilies from the backyard into the house, gathering at least four to six of each and placing them into a rust-colored pottery vase from under the counter where the microwave rested; there were more places more vases were. She placed it in the middle of the island; one detail forgotten to be mentioned upon arrival was that there was another sink was attached to the island, so there were two in the kitchen altogether. The lilies sent up a sweet aroma into the air; if she could have, she would have added lilies to her favorite perfume and make that roses, freesia, jasmines _and_ lilies.

The sound of a throat being cleared brought her attention to see Jonathan standing there, leaning against the doorframe as he surveyed her with another dark look in his eyes, though not Scarecrow's sadistic desire to invade her mind again. "It's a shame I had to let you go just for this," he purred. "I enjoyed you tied to the bed."

Elizabeth felt a heavy blush rise in her cheeks again. _Of course you would,_ she thought. _You're a sadist, and sadists enjoy being in control._ The memory of his body creating friction against hers made her body tingle in her breasts and stomach. "Perhaps someday soon it will be _me_ to do _that_ to _you_ ," she returned, walking around the island so she stood in front of him.

Jonathan's lips pulled back into a teeth baring grin. "That's inappropriate for a young lady to tell a man nearly twice her age." Returning the grin and knowing he wouldn't resist, she extended her hand and laid her hand on his cheek; he placed his on top of hers and turned his face in its direction, placing a kiss on her skin, inhaling her scent. Then his other arm came up and wrapped around her waist. She gazed into his eyes, spellbound, and he gazed back in the same manner. Her heart thumped harshly against her sternum as he leaned in enough to almost touch her lips if not directly. "You have no idea, Elizabeth," he growled softly, "how long I waited for you. My whole lonely life...for you."

~o~

The day had been beautiful as it passed by, but the next day's forecast according to the previous was said to be one hundred percent chance of rain, and she couldn't wait because of the idea she had planned for her and Jonathan, even if he claimed to not want to act it out. As a child, thunderstorms scared her - and they did now - but not as much as simple rainstorms, because they were relaxing for reading or sleeping at night. It was magical every time, never getting old. Now she sat by the wide window in the sitting room, gazing out at the dark clouds, wearing her robe and gown that morning, tea in one of the blush-red-and-gold floral-patterned, gold-rimmed white porcelain cups from the china cabinet, gazing out at the heavy gray sky and thick sheen of silver coming down hard on the lush greenery. Elizabeth's legs were comfortable resting over the edge of the the chair by the window as she sang quietly at first before getting higher with each tune.

 _"One look at love and you may see_

 _it weaves a web over mystery;_

 _all ravelled threads can rend apart_

 _for hope has a place in the lover's heart._

 _Hope has a place in a lover's heart._

 _Whispering world, a sigh of sighs,_

 _the ebb and the flow of the ocean tides._

 _One breath, one word may end or may start_

 _a hope in a place of the lover's heart._

 _Hope has a place in a lover's heart._

 _Look to love and you may dream,_

 _and if it should leave, then give it wings._

 _But if such a love is meant to be,_

 _hope is home, and the heart is free._

 _Under the heavens, we journey far_

 _on the roads of life, we're the wanderers,_

 _so let love rise, so let love depart,_

 _let hope have a place in a lover's heart._

 _Hope has a place in a lover's heart._

 _Look to love and you may dream,_

 _and if it should leave, then give it wings._

 _But if such a love is meant to be,_

 _hope is home, and the heart is free._

 _Hope is home, and the heart is free."_

"Lovely song. Enya is perfection if not everyone can love her without falling asleep."

She looked up at the sight of Jonathan appearing with a book in hand; she recognized it as the _Kama Sutra,_ much to her own embarrassment and delight. _Like it goes, "make love_ better _."_ "One of my favorite songs as a teenager." He knelt down beside her with the book tucked under one arm.

"You never sing often, but when you do, your voice is too mystical for words," he said. "You shouldn't be ashamed of it."

She shrugged. "Just that not everyone can make it to the top like those country singers and the rest. Just because I'm from the south and have the accent doesn't mean I can master it to perfection. I chose this particular song because it fits the atmosphere." She looked back at the windowpane to see the streaks of waterdrops and the pressurized fall on grass and concrete. "And it's perfect for a little dance."

Jonathan knew what she was implying; she could hear the smile in his voice without looking at him, instead concentrating on Mother Nature shedding tears of happiness for them. "Then let's go outside and get soaking so we can take our clothes off afterwards."

"What?" she asked, shocked at his bold implication of lovemaking afterwards. _Get wet, get naked and get busy._ She laughed at both the joke as she set her tea cup down. She looked down at her nightwear then. "But I'm not dressed -" He cut her off by grabbing her wrist and getting her to her feet. "Hey, what are you doing?" Elizabeth asked with another laugh when he undid her robe sash and slipped the thing off of her, leaving her only in her dress.

"There, now you're ready, and here we go." Jonathan then swept her off the ground and carried her in his arms, one under her knees and the other her back, carrying her in the same direction through the dining room and kitchen until they were out the back door. Setting her down at the opened entrance, a humid breeze brushed over her skin. Jonathan chuckled softly as he placed his hand on her lower back and led her forward.

Elizabeth shrieked with laughter at the fall instantly pouring onto her and soaking her satin slip, marking it as a dark amethyst. Looking over at Jonathan, his dress shirt was soaked enough to show his bony torso. He was ashamed of it, but Elizabeth wanted afterwards to show him that he had nothing to be embarrassed about. They'd made love in her bed that second time, but he'd made her not look at the lower half of his body, which she thought was too charming. But right now, all she wanted to do was stand out here with him in the rain, do the waltz from _Beauty and the Beast_ which she always imagined for her wedding someday - the couple's first dance, specifically. She took Jonathan's right hand and placed it on her hip, and she put hers on his left shoulder, leaving their free hands to join together. "Let's do this now before I show you there is nothing to be ashamed of, Jonathan," she said softly.

He frowned. "Ashamed? What exactly are you saying?"

"You touched my body, explored me and loved me like I should be, but you never let me do the same to you," she answered in time with their dance, taking care not to slip on the muddy ground.

He was the one to stop the dance altogether, dropping his hands to his side and stepping back. "Elizabeth, you do not know what you're saying. My body is the most hideous thing you will ever have seen...worst than the scarecrow and the Beast -"

She shook her head furiously and walked up to put her finger to his lips. "Hush, Jonathan. I don't want to hear you talk like that. We don't need to admit how we really feel based on a fairytale, because what we have speaks for itself." _Love is never truly explained in proper words; feeling is enough._ She reached down and unbuttoned his soaking shirt, revealing his chest bit by bit until she exposed a lightly muscled chest and concaved stomach with a barely-there six-pack, his ribs clearly showing. "Look, I don't care how it looks. It's how you are made, and I accept it." She reached for his belt then, wanting to see what had made her his, but he tried to stop her again, shaking his head.

"No, Elizabeth. Stop."

"Jonathan." Her hair was matting to her neck and shoulders, and she was getting cold as she knew he was. _Perhaps we should take it inside._ "Let me see the rest of your body and show you in bed. _Please_."

He looked her in the eyes as if searching for something, then resigned and let her get him out of the rest of his clothes while in the middle of a rainstorm. Seeing him naked - wholly naked for the first time - made her gasp and heat up below her stomach. His hips were slim, pelvic bones jutting, and his impressive length resting limply against a soft reddish brown nest. _He's so...handsome. He's nothing compared to the muscle guys of a little girl's fantasy._ "See, Jonathan? There is nothing wrong with this." She ran her hand over his chest and stomach, stopping above his hardening shaft. "Now will we go to bed?" she asked, dropping her voice to a sly whisper. Both times turned her into a sex-hungry cat, it seemed. Jonathan's eyes spoke exactly that; his self-esteem issues seemed to vanish, replaced with a salacious smirk.

~o~

Tomorrow they would be returning to Gotham, which meant that Jonathan had to think about getting back into Arkham as well. He would just say that, upon return, that he'd been out but not causing any trouble, only to reevaluate his life and consider returning to the outside world without experimentation on fear. _They must never know my real reason. I want to go back, but I can't just abandon my researches. I have a plan of reinventing the fear toxin only to cure them of their fears altogether, and they will thank me eventually. But that means leaving Gotham forever. I can't risk the Bat throwing me back with the wolves._

He stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting for Elizabeth to finish getting ready. He shifted from foot to foot impatiently; women took a long time to get dressed for a special occasion. Tonight was special because it was a dinner for two at Olive Garden. Jonathan should be the gentleman for tonight and be the one to treat her like a princess, once again thanks to advice from Jervis.

"Jonathan?" He looked up. There she was, and oh, was she elegant. The gown was silvery grey almost pearlescent, one-shouldered Grecian style and fitting her body to show off her curves, and the flowing skirt had a slit to the left side. Her hair was elegantly and lovingly bunned behind her head, pinned with luminous pearls. In her ears and around her neck were jewelry pieces crafted in the style and spirit of elegance, from the Tudor era; they were chandelier-styled rubies enhanced with oval and teardrop aquamarines into rustic settings and finished in luxurious gold. Elizabeth was the overall vintage-inspired beauty in this realistic setting of the classic tale.

"Beautiful," was all he could muster as she stood before him. He offered his arm out to her; she took it by the elbow, and he led her out to the car for him to let her in first before getting into the driver's seat.

They had a merry evening tonight, avoiding any unpleasant conversations and just joked and laughed; he laughed with her even when he didn't find a particular one funny, though her style was nothing compared to Joker's sadistic fashion. Appetizer served first was bruschetta, a traditional topping of roma tomatoes, fresh basil and extra-virgin olive oil on toasted ciabatta bread; the main course itself was the same thing they both had: spaghetti with meat sauce, a traditional clichéd romantic dinner for two. Drinks were a refreshing mix of lemonade, sparkling water, strawberries and passionfruit. By the time they were finished, the waiter asked them if they felt like dessert, both refused. "I'm ready to head home," Elizabeth told him. "I need a good night's rest for the flight tomorrow."

"You and I both," Jonathan agreed, standing with her and taking her hand with his. _Back to our lives in that city of filth. But I will still see her in Arkham as ever, but not the same as now,_ he thought with sadness as he led her to the car they would return in the morning before their flight.

"Jonathan?" He looked up at her and saw her smiling. She had always been able to make him do so when no one else did, and nothing between them changed in the last week despite the full-blown passion they shared. "After we work on a way to get you back on the streets, would you like to...get a place with me, so we can live a life?"

He felt himself stiffen behind the wheel but managed to keep them on the safe side, yet the question rendered him a tad overwhemled. _She's asking me to...move in with her._ He opened his mouth but never had the chance to answer when her phone suddenly rang. "Hello?" she answered it, a second or two passing by before she gasped sharply. "Bolton, how the hell did you get this number?"

Jonathan's grip on the wheel tightened as he drove the car at a faster speed but tried his hardest to keep them under the limit. _Lyle Bolton. No one has seen or heard from him since he was fired. How_ dare _he call her?_ And the sound of her voice made him think the worst.

"What did you do to him?" she demanded angrily. There was a pause. "No, you don't lay a hand on him until I come there." Pause. "What, you want _me_ to come alone? I won't do that if this is your last ditch effort to win me as you tried at Arkham -"

A longer pause followed, and even though Jonathan couldn't hear _every_ word the fool was saying, he knew that he was telling Elizabeth to "come alone, or he suffers more than he is now." After that, she cursed when the line died. "Damn bastard!" He almost laughed because he'd never heard her curse before.

"What is it?"

She didn't look at him. "He knows I'm here, and that you're with me. He got poor Jervis to confess, and threatened Dr. Bartholomew into giving up my phone number. And now he wants me. Because we were all part of him getting rid of him."

Jonathan seethed. "He's taking revenge for losing everything he had," he stated. _Obviously. He's taken hostage the head doctor who dismissed him, Elizabeth's primary patient who is one of our dearest friends - and now wants the woman he couldn't have. It all fits perfectly._

"Exactly. He told me to come to him alone, never go to the Batman or the police, or else he'll know and make them suffer." She moved closer and held onto him tight. "Oh, Jonathan, this is my fault."

"No, it is not," he assured her, leaning in and kissing her forehead. "Don't allow yourself to get into this mess. We're going back to Gotham come up with plan to save Jervis and Dr. Bartholomew."

 **Uh oh, trouble now. :O So what will our lovebirds do to save their friends? Next chapter will tell.**

 **Enya is one of my favorite singers, and the song is "Hope Has a Place", which eventually became the chapter title. :D**


	16. The Magnificent Four

**The chapter as well as its content is inspired by episode 10 of season six of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (I've done a couple fics of that, too, though one is halfway completed), titled "The Magnificent Ferengi". :D Nothing but comedy and danger tied in one.**

Chapter Sixteen

The Magnificent Four

The whole time packing and eventually getting onto the flight back to Gotham was an out-of-body experience of its own. Elizabeth's mind was so full of poor, innocent Jervis and Dr. Bartholomew, her boss who was like a father to her, in danger at the hands of Lyle Bolton, the man she hated passionately for what he did to Jonathan, Harley and the rest, got fired as a result. He'd lost his mind literally; he must have taken this long enough to plan all of this with great care.

 _He knows about_ us, she thought as she looked to her side to the man she knew she had feelings for, but wasn't sure if she could call it love just yet. Elizabeth didn't know if he would do that, since no one ever showed him that in his life. No one but her. But she _had_ to tell him soon before something happened to one of them, and the other would regret it. She was too afraid to tell him on board, so when they were finally at her apartment, she turned and threw her arms around his neck and kissed him long and passionately.

Jonathan made a noise of surprise at her sudden bold move, nevertheless wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing her in, deepening the fiery lip-lock between them. Never had she been this close to anyone, but it was so hard to fight these feelings when it was so hard to breathe, and if you cared so deeply about that person of your interest. Jonathan had been there for her since the beginning of her school years, and she'd taken him as a patient when his life fell apart; however as the years passed by altogether, that role of professor-student to doctor-patient evolved into something more, something wrong yet so right at the same time. _And here we are now. But now I'm afraid it will fail tonight. I'll either lose him, or he'll lose me...no, try not to think like that._

Elizabeth pulled back to look him in the eyes heatedly, her words equally hot. "Jonathan...I love you."

His eyes bore into hers, searching her, his face schooled into an expressionless mask she couldn't read, but his eyes were another wave of various emotions. And then his mouth split into a twitching smile as though fighting his inner conflict. "No one has ever said those words to me before."

"I know. And it's true. I'm telling you now because I can't bear one of us going into our doom without telling the other."

He laughed and leaned down to kiss her in return, briefly but still warm and lingering. "I love you, too, Elizabeth. You won't hear me say so often, but you know it."

"I know," she answered. "But if something happens to you, I will never forgive myself."

His lips were on her forehead. "Go now before all is too late."

Elizabeth took her motorcycle down the streets of Gotham; she was armed with her pistol because of the danger lying ahead. Now she truly felt like Belle, her Beast in danger and it was her job to save him. But it was another of her patients and her employer in great peril; excitement and fear all but coursed through her, but she wouldn't let the latter take over. She wore a light blue denim shirt and a sunflower-printed skirt paired with her favorite boots; the southern-born cowgirl would show the world she wasn't the scared little girl they thought she was.

Bolton was holding Jervis and Bartholomew on the USS Halsey, an abandonded ship vessel outside Gotham and on the ocean. He'd told her exactly to come alone or else he would know, but she gave Jonathan the details, and he promised her her would rally up some of the others who were still roaming Arkham. She would have to just steal a motor boat whether she liked it or not. And lucky for her, when she reached the dock, there was one right there. _Please, hurry, Jonathan._

~o~

He held his breath the whole time he wandered the alleyways. He'd been here many times so there was no need to feel negative emotions; he hadn't felt anything like this in a long time, except when the Batman exposed him to his own fear toxin - and to his fear of bats. He'd told Elizabeth that he feared nothing, that he drove it his way, but she didn't need to know his own fear. It made him feel terrible, but he had his pride to preserve despite his love for her.

Jonathan smiled to himself. _I love her. I have never heard those three simple words that make such a difference in my life._

He kept his ears and vision alert as he scouted the seemingly empty darkness which he made his way for the place where he heard rumors of Harley Quinn's current residence. The old comedy theater which had was falling apart yet managed to stay strong and intact, the irony. He was back in Gotham for barely a night and was surprised that Harley managed to avoid the Bat's capture all this time. Besides the public rant of her Mistah J, Jonathan wondered what else she'd been up to while he and Elizabeth were gone, but social visits weren't necessary at a time like this.

Not while Lyle Bolton was getting revenge for losing his old job. Because he had Jervis and Dr. Bartholomew, that meant once Jonathan showed his face, he would end up facing Bolton himself, but he was no longer afraid like he had been in Arkham. He was willing to risk his life for his friend and the good doctor - and the woman he loved who was on her way to rescue them.

 _He won't know what hit him. He will learn new lessons in fear._

There was a noise to his right, and Jonathan jerked his head in that direction. Nobody and _nothing_ was there but some garbage bins against the brick walls, but he couldn't be too careful. Jonathan's finger moved to the trigger of the fear canister strapped to his wrist. He raised it as he would a gun, prepared to strike at anyone who would dare try to come onto him.

"Professor Crane!"

"Goodness, child!" he exclaimed, whirling around and seeing Harley standing there and grinning at him. "You almost gave me a heart attack, and I would have given you a dose of your worst fears." He held up his strapped canister as visible proof. He stiffened when her arms tightly engulfed him in a suffocating embrace.

"Oh, it's so good to see you again, Jonny. How's Lizzie?"

"She's fine, but I came alone because -"

Unfortunately, she was too excited for whatever news she wanted to share with him that she let him go only to drag him inside, where they were greeted by her enormous "babies", Bud and Lou. They barked and slobbered at the sight of Jonathan entering their domain. "Now, babies, just because you're happy to see Professor Crane doesn't mean you get to jump him the moment he enters. Give him time to breathe. Have a seat while I get the cocoa. I make it specially at a time like this; it's going to rain soon." He sighed and watched her bounce away into what looked like the kitchen. He could smell said cocoa from the table he sat at. "I suppose you're wondering what I've been up to since you and Lizzie were gone."

"Do spill the beans," Jonathan answered, unwittingly stroking Lou's head as she came up and sniffed him. His patience was wearing off with every second. "I know all about your TV rant, but what else?"

She laughed so hard she almost spilled the mugs when she returned. "I managed to find out that Mistah J was cheating with some hoe."

Jonathan let loose a hard guffaw that wracked his body so hard his sides began to throb. "C-child, what did you do?!" He temporarily forgot his mission and focused on hearing about her revenge on her unfaithful lover. She cracked her famous grin when she launched into it.

"I went back to the old carnival we lived last time, knowing my puddin'. However, as soon as I entered, I could HEAR the noises coming from _our_ bedroom. It was horrid and unbearable, and so on. My Mistah J, breaking my heart like that." Her lips were quivering; she chewed her bottom lip in an attempt to try and stop it, but it failed. "So I did what I do best: I lost it and broke into the room and let loose my bullets in the air, over their heads, screaming and I quote..." She paused there, that malicious grin back at the memory of the pleasure she felt as she took control for the first time in her life over the Joker.

Her sudden roar of a tirade sent Jonathan falling out of his chair.

"'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN HERE, BRINGING THAT HOE UP IN HERE?! HOW DARE YOU DO THIS; I WILL KILL YOUR BEHIND FOR THIS! MISTAH J, MY _BED!_ THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, MISTAH J?! YOU GOT SOME HOE IN MY BED, I COULD KILL YOU!"

She paused and lowered her voice, looking over the table and seeing Jonathan rise back, glaring at her and making her grin wider. "If you're wondering what I did, I shot that hoe and my puddin' in the behinds when they got out of the covers together. They both deserved it, I think. I'm definitely moving on from him definitely, and Jervis is perfect. He's been so good to me as I have been to him. And what's cuter: he's never been with a girl, which makes it exciting."

"Of course it does," Jonathan said, thinking back to him losing his virginity to Elizabeth. "Now, on to my part -" He almost groaned when she went on again.

"Oh, Eddie and Diane are getting married in four months at the city cathedral, and it's so perfect. Di asked me to help her pick out her wedding dress three days ago, and I couldn't say no. She wanted something very soft and romantic, because she's only getting married once. I first suggested a ballgown, and ohhh." She sighed pleasantly after a sip. "It was beautiful and everything I would imagine for myself: lightweight tulle boldly embroidered with a striking lace pattern for undeniable elegance, and some crystals and pearls for a touch of sparkle, finished with a sweetheart neckline." Her face fell then. "Sadly, she wanted something smaller to show her curves off. But I've gotten that dress for myself," Harley added with that big grin still in place. "For Jervis and me; my heart and soul spoke to that one dress.

"The next was a romantic fit-and-flare with another sweetheart neck, close to what she was going for, but it was too bedazzled, she'd said. Too much like Veronica Vreeland's reception; it was tulle like the first, but the bodice and straps dropping past the waist had too much sparkle. She wanted one that was all her. And sadly, the next one that she picked was too covering up of her chest despite fitting to her body, no matter the exquisite bold lace and understated glamor; it looks like it came from the sixties, if you ask me."

She'd finished her cocoa by the end of her chatter. "But the fourth was the charm. Diane picked it herself, and I love it if she does. Not my style, but its perfect for her. It's a slim A-line with spaghetti straps, simple yet stunning, lace-embroidered, and very daring with a V-neckline." She leaned back and sighed heavenly as she seemed to be picturing herself on her own wedding day. Jonathan sighed and shook his head, putting his mug down in front of him.

 _Women and wedding dresses._ "Harley, as much as I love to be indulged with adventures with wedding shopping, I have bad news: Elizabeth is in danger with Lyle Bolton."

The good mood for the blonde girl ended right there at the mention of her best friend. Blue eyes widened as they locked with his. On either side, the hyenas stopped panting and whimpered as they waited for him to continue.

"Lizzie..." Harley finally spoke, voice barely audible. "...in trouble?"

"With Bolton, the one and the same maniac," Jonathan answered gravely. "And it gets worse: Dr. Bartholomew and Jervis have been taken hostage because he wants her. He's going to take her from us, but I have no idea just yet what he's planning, but I think the general idea is to capture all those who took part in his disgrace. That's why I need your help. We have to rescue Elizabeth and the others, without the interference of the Batman and the law."

Her jaw was still slackened as she processed what he was telling her. "You...me...rescue Lizzie, Doc Bartholomew and my Jervis...from _Bolton?!_ Oh, God." She moaned and slapped her hand over her eyes. Jonathan shook his head.

"'Oh, God' is right," he murmured.

~o~

She knew death always came unexpectedly, but she would not dwell on death tonight. Bolton wouldn't kill anyone tonight - or would he? Chances were halfway, and you never knew with this man. Who knew what he'd been doing to Dr. Bartholome and Jervis before she got here.

The Halsey loomed over her like a sinister ghost ship, but it was what lurked inside which chilled her soul as much as she had her faith to keep herself warm. Elizabeth drove the boat to the side where the ladder was laid out for her, and by the time she reached the top, she felt like she would pass out from the traveling...and lo and behold, the deck of the Ship of Doom. _No time for laughter._

She considered yelling for Bolton that she was here as he wanted, and that she was alone, but then again, perhaps she could try and be stealth and scout about until she found Jervis and Bartholomew. She didn't know this place well, but she couldn't waste any time standing here, so her boots made soft clicks on the steel deck as she made way for the two doors of the lift for down below the deck. She was greeted with darkness until she reached the very bottom and met a dimly lit hallway downstairs...very much like journeying through the mummy's tomb.

And straight into a cursed death.

~o~

"No, absolutely not me!"

"But Eddie," Harley protested, moving up close enough to press her body against his, sticking her lower lip out in a pout, "Lizzie, Jervis and the doc need you. And not to mention, _we_ -" She nodded at Jonathan and then pointed to herself. "- need you."

Jonathan wanted Edward Nygma on their side - if just this one time - because he was one of the few who was Elizabeth's ever true friend, like Harley and Jervis, and Pamela before she left Arkham for good. He and Harley both knew they couldn't face Bolton and rescue Elizabeth and the men alone; they needed help from some fellow Rogues as well as this one in front of them, who had a life now. "You guys," Edward said dejectedly, turning away from them so he could haul the trash bag into the can outside the apartment complex he shared with his new fiancée, the very same Nurse Diane at Arkham, "I'm going to be a married man soon, and I have responsibilities in life. And that includes not getting tangled up with this mess again, especially with you guys who are still 'legally insane'."

Jonathan sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes. _I knew it all; it's a waste of time. And three people out there need our help._ "Too bad, because I wanted you to be my best man when the time comes, once we save them." He remembered the day he put her mother's ring on her finger, when he briefly fantasized her dream wedding and placed himself in place of her imaginary groom. He wasn't a young man anymore, she was the one for him and he knew it, and he wanted to have that life with her. And if that day actually came, he wanted both Jervis and Edward up there beside him as he accepted that ring on his finger and placed her mother's ring on hers.

And Nygma's attention was rapt on his face. "Best man?" he repeated smugly. "You mean to tell me that you and Elizabeth...?"

"Are together, yes. But I will spare you the details later. Now - are you in or out?" He hoped Edward would change his mind; he could not bring Joker in, or even Two-Face. He wanted those he knew he could truly count on.

"That depends. How big is the team right now?" Jonathan held up two fingers, indicating Harley and himself. Seeing that, Edward shook his head and smirked, holding up _three_ fingers. _He's in,_ Jonathan thought with triumph, laughing and accepting a slap on the back from Harley.

And then a series of clapping hands snapped their attention in the opposite direction. "Mistah J!" Harley exclaimed furiously as she glared at her ex-boyfriend, the cheating clown who got shot in the backside by his abused girlfriend who took matters into her own hands.

"That's right, my little harlequin," Joker drawled. "Back and ready for some action."

Jonathan seethed; the last thing he expected was this scumbag stepping into their personal rescue mission. "What do you want, clown?" he sneered, but the Joker was unfazed.

"I'm here to sign up and help you rescue your Scream Queen, good professor."

Harley's eyes widened. "What? How do you know about Lizzie?"

"I know a lot of things any way I can," the clown answered mysteriously, still smiling as he stepped forward so he was feet away from Jonathan. "So, when do we leave, doc?"

"We are NOT leaving with you," Jonathan snarled, baring his teeth. "I won't allow you near her, or this one here after what you did to her." He pulled Harley to his side, her well-being important to him as much as Elizabeth's was, and Jervis and Bartholomew.

"That's right," Edward piped up. "No one likes cheating psychopathic clowns on the team."

Joker bared his teeth as he raged internally, glaring at all three of them. "Fine, degrade me more than this little one did." He fixed his fiery gaze on Harley, who returned it without trouble. "I only wanted to offer my sorries for my wrongdoings against my little pumpkin pie..." He dropped his voice to the coo which always made Harley swoon and fall back for him, along with his "I could never stay mad at you" words and face, but not this time. "...and then hop into my car and leave. After all, I _was_ going to offer my motor boat for you three to go to the old Halsey ship. But it seems my offer is declined." He turned to walk away before Halsey called him back.

"Wait - did you say motor boat?"

Her innocent question made both Jonathan and Edward look down at her in shock. _What are you thinking?! That man isn't acceptable in helping us rescue Elizabeth, Jervis and Dr. Bartholomew!_ Jonathan wanted to shout, but at the same time, they needed a transport out in the ocean. Relucantly, they all agreed that Joker was added to the team.

Now it was the four of them against one in order to rescue three.

 **If anyone is a Star Trek fan, please feel free to check Deep Space Nine out. :D The "Magnificent Ferengi" episode of season six is one of many too delightful to ignore.**


	17. Moment of Truth

Chapter Seventeen

Moment of Truth

Elizabeth's head was spinning by the time she regained consciousness. She grimaced when she opened her eyes and saw light blinding her; she squeezed them back shut when a mild migraine occurred and reached to rub her eyes. The last thing she remembered was a prick to her neck and then falling to the floor when her senses vanished.

"So, Sleeping Beauty awakens in my castle."

She lifted her head at the sound of the voice she had been "wanting" to hear as soon as she found him. She had been lying - or rather, sitting up - in a leather chair not that far from his in front of a selection of security television screens showing every room and section of the ship...including one jail cell with bars imprisoning two people she had risked her life for. _Jervis...Dr. Bartholomew,_ she thought with despair as she looked at the poor former who quivered against the good doctor who was trying everything he could to keep him calm. Probably assuring him that she - or Batman, perhaps - would come and rescue them, somehow.

Batman couldn't be there for everyone, she knew. The law might rule that no average civilian was allowed to take matters into their own hands, let the police and government protect the city, but a large population of them as well as the rich - minus her dear friends Bruce and Veronica - were corrupt, the sickly wealthy and bought off what they could for silence and preservation. That meant the scum got away without final trial. Batman was there for that reason, but then again, he couldn't always be there. Like tonight, so that meant Elizabeth Dodson, Jonathan Crane and their friends were the only hopes.

Elizabeth suspected that was why Lyle Bolton had taken her boss and main patient. Grimacing, she sat up in her chair, noticing that she wasn't tied up as she ought to be. _Bolton must think he trusts me not to escape._ She noticed he took her gun away - but he didn't think to look further where she kept her other secret weapon, and that was her pocket knife in her underwear. If she could grasp it whenever he wasn't looking...

"Let me guess, tranquilizer dart," she said, sitting up straight and perfectly stoic like a statue, sarcastically adding, "Nothing original, but enough to slow me down, right?" Her eyes fell to the one screen showing the hallway of her memory; she cursed herself for her stupidity and not checking for cameras and possible booby traps. Bolton was a high-tech genius, catching you off-guard all the time.

He chuckled and turned from the footage to face her, elbow on the surface of the table as he casually leaned over and cocked his head to the side, palm flat against the side of his face. "Well, I couldn't harm the princess of Arkham herself, because I have so much ahead for us both. This city needs to be saved, and for starters, I had to take in the first of scum she needed protection from," he said with a sickening grin.

"What do you want from me, Lyle?" Elizabeth asked. "Be your whore? You won't get me because I'm already taken."

His face contorted into an ugly snarl, and he raised his head, dropping his arm altogether and standing. "You think I don't know that _Scarecrow_ is your lover? It was clear enough when he hasn't been in Gotham for a week now, and those videotapes I kept of the two of you from while I was still security chief were enough." She stiffened in shock, thinking, _He spent his days watching them, watching Jonathan and me kiss...and imagines himself doing that to me. Maybe more._ The thought made her ill. First David, then those two in Georgia - almost - and now Bolton. She was a magnet for beastly male desire. _Except for two._

"But that won't stop me from taking what I see is mine."

He now stood over her, doing his best to intimidate her like he did on the very first day he walked into her office, but Elizabeth stood up and stuck her chin out at him. "I'm not yours. I never was and never will be."

He laughed and shook his head. "Oh, but men must throw themselves at you."

"And I rejected them because they weren't my standards." She would not give him the satisfaction of revealing her college trauma and the near-repeat in her hometown. "But one in particular lives up to it, regardless of the shell of a monster the world placed on him - including you." Her eyes and voice - as well as her heart - hardened as she locked herself in a match with the brute.

Her forearms were seized on the spot, engulfed in a vice of a grip, and Elizabeth was whirled around and thrown on the table nearby cleared of everything. She squirmed and tried to get away from him - no, she would NOT be taken against her will again! - but he was much stronger than her and pinned her down easily, her wrists on either side of her head and his waist between her partially spread legs, though not finishing the deed beyond simply trapping her.

She tried one more time to struggle against him and failed, but while her body did that, her words didn't. "You're kidnapping innocent victims, by the looks of it." She nodded to the screen showing Bartholomew and Jervis behind bars. "Who's next?"

Bolton laughed. "The media leech Gleeson, of course. After that will be the weak link commissioner of GCPD, and then the mayor. The big ones will be out of the way enough to make it easier for the lesser ones. That does include your Scarecrow lover and the little harlequin whore among."

The whole time he was speaking to her, Elizabeth felt her eyes widen when she spotted four familiar faces wandering the hallways of the ship's interior. _Harley...Edward...Joker..._ She gritted her teeth when that clown just had to join in, but the fourth and final in the lead made the bulb of hope flicker on.

 _Jonathan._

~o~

"Maybe we should split up," Edward suggested as the four of them scouted the hallway of the ship. As they all knew it, there were hidden cameras that he was able to spot right away for them; his part was to look for the security room and deactivate all of the systems, so splitting up was the best option. Jonathan had to agree, but at the same time, he wasn't sure. Bolton had to be watching at all times, so none of them were safe. Joker and Harley would take charge with finding Bartholomew and Jervis, and that left Jonathan alone with finding Elizabeth and Bolton.

"What, are you crazy?!" Harley cried, almost raising her voice and getting all the men's eyes on her. She lowered her voice. "Sorry. But what if cages and hidden guns and so on are waiting for us? He won't let us get out that easily!" She yelped when Joker slapped her on the back.

"Pipe down, Harley girl! Of course, there are cameras everywhere, but look how far we are now." He gestured in front of them when three doors - two on the left and one on the right - now lay before their eyes. "The doc and Hatter are behind one of those, for sure." He shoved all three of them aside and pranced before the first on the left, seeing nothing, but then as soon as he reached the right - "Oi, what do know? Look what we have here, folks!"

This was too easy, and Jonathan's experience taught him nothing was ever easy, unless Bolton was letting them slip past him this way until they reached something much deeper than they would have thought. There were Dr. Bartholomew and Jervis behind bars like Stonegate; this place had been a temporary prison while said penitentiary was under construction, and Bolton had been in charge of the security systems here, ironically. The door to the cells was unlocked, but knowing Bolton's methods, the bars had to be electrified to prevent the prisoners from getting out and their rescuers from freeing them unless Edward hurried and found the systems, shutting it all down. "I'll go now," he announced, nodding and taking his leave down the hallway for another door. Leaving Jonathan to abandon the clown and Harley for his own personal mission.

Fear canister strapped to his wrist, he set out to hunt for Lyle Bolton and Elizabeth. _What scares the nightmare called Lyle Bolton, I wonder,_ he thought, revenge filling him with excitement as he thought of finally overcoming the man who tortured him and his friends and fellow inmates.

~o~

 _They're here,_ she thought happily, although while Harley and Joker - the damn clown - were working to free Jervis and Bartholomew, that did not free her from her current predicament. Bolton was still over her, and his hands were roaming over her body no different that three other horrible men in her life. She snarled and thrashed out in his hold, refusing to be helpless like she'd been then. "Don't touch me," she hissed, getting a slap across the face, this time laughing, which caused him to stop and stare at her with shocked eyes.

"What the hell are you laughing at, Elizabeth?"

She decided to have some fun with him. If begging wouldn't work, then this might. From the corner of her eye, she saw on the screen that Joker and Harley had bombed the electrified cell and got Jervis and Bartholomew out safely - and at a price. Soon, there was a loud blaring of an alarm. Red lights flashed on the console and overhead somewhere. Bolton looked up finally and cursed angrily for his negligence of the footage. Elizabeth felt like laughing harder because it was so funny that a man obsessed with keeping criminals locked up, hell-bent on cleaning up the city but showing his prisoners no compassion, depriving them of hope and possibilities of redemption, could not pay attention full time when it came to a woman. She would _never_ be this creature's as long as she lived.

Bolton released her and dashed over to the control console, scrambling to close off all exits. He had no idea that he'd made the biggest mistake of his life; Elizabeth had to move fast before he returned his attention to her. Her friends depended on her right now, and where was Jonathan? Edward was a tech genius himself, so he could be searching high and low for the security system and shut it all down, so where was _he_ , too?

Finally, her fingers found her pocket knife, tucked safely in her underwear; the blade popped out right away, and she quickly but quietly snuck up behind Bolton, raising it and bringing it down, targeting his right shoulder blade. Blood stained his shirt, and he howled in pain, throwing his head backwards and falling out of his chair. Elizabeth quickly closed her blade and turned to run for the door, opening it and running out into the hallway -

\- only to fall into a pair of long, slender arms which enveloped her and held her in place. "Elizabeth!" Jonathan cried, breaking apart and looking her over, taking the time to run his fingers through her hair. The feeling was wonderful, wanted, but behind them was Lyle Bolton in the security room, injured but wouldn't be down for long.

"Jonathan, he's back there!" Elizabeth panted. "I s-stabbed him, but he won't be down long. We have to...finish him off." She looked behind her to see the others coming up. "Doctor, Jervis, are you guys okay?"

Bartholomew cleared his throat and stepped forward. "Very much, and as much as I'm willing to put these ones back, I'm very happy you came to rescue us," he answered with a little smile. "Especially Harley." She squealed and ran up to give him her infamous suffocating embrace. "Oh, easy, dear!" Elizabeth burst out laughing, along with Jonathan chuckling and shaking his head, but then Edward spoke up.

"Guys, I hate to break this up, but we got bigger company."

Everyone turned behind them to see Lyle Bolton stumbling out of the security room, and as soon as he managed to pull himself together, and as soon as his attention landed on the group, his face twisted savagely.

"You're all going down now..." His dark eyes swiveled to Elizabeth then; she gulped and back further into her lover, his arms wrapped around her. "...especially _you_."

~o~

"Everyone, get outside now!" Jonathan shouted, taking Elizabeth's hand and leading the way, the group following. This was where it would all end. Bolton was outnumbered, but that didn't mean he wasn't armed. As soon as they reached the stairs, a gate fell from above and blocked them, preventing them from escaping. Bolton laughed, making everyone turn back and see that he had a remote control.

"None of you are going anywhere. You are all going to be locked up in this place as part of the solution. I have taken up my own destiny to apprehend the scum and clean this city myself, if the Batman can't do it alone. And I'm not leaving until the girl is mine." Jonathan stood in front of Elizabeth protectively, ready to lash out his fear toxin and make Bolton feast on his fears, take the pleasure in seeing him scream and writhe on the floor. Nothing would please him better than to see their tormentor kissing their feet.

"You won't have her, Bolton," Jonathan said valiantly. "She's mine, and you'll have to go through me to take her."

"Really, Scary? That's all you can do? I came all this way, risked my own life all for you to defend your girl without fighting the bad guy?! This is where I shoot you down, Lock-Up!" Joker cackled, and then a single bullet shot echoed throughout the hallway. He'd drawn a longe-range revolver and wasted no time firing. Jonathan looked back when Bolton screamed and dropped the remote to grab at his right calf; the clown had fired to slow him down instead of killing him off right away and "spoiling the fun". _Typically,_ he thought, _but perfect._ Elizabeth left him and courageously dove for the remote, snatching it up and pressing the correct button to bring the gate back up for them all.

"Go, guys!" she shouted, turning around fast when Harley yelled at her to watch out. Bolton was rising and had struck out his hand to grab her by the wrist and pull her down to him.

"Oh, hell, no, that's my girl you have!" Harley shouted as she was reaching for her own gun, only for her ex to yank her after the others. "Let me go; Lizzie needs me!"

 _As much as you deserve to,_ Jonathan thought sadly, _I have to be here instead. It's my place._ "No, you go with the others," he told her, ignoring her protests and turning back to face his enemy who held his lover to his broad chest. "Let her go, Bolton. You know you need her and don't want to hurt her."

His adversary laughed and held her closer. "You're right, Crane; I won't. How about this: drop your can of fear gas, as you call it, and I'll let her go."

By dropping his weapon and handing it over to his enemy, he would leave both Elizabeth and himself vulnerable. This he could not allow. Nevertheless, seeing Elizabeth - and her gun pointed at her head now - in Bolton's arms, Jonathan internally raged and complied, unstrapping his fear toxin can and sliding it across the floor towards Bolton, who kicked it away. "Good professor," Bolton said sarcastically, smiling, and releasing Elizabeth then, though her weapon remained in his hand as he walked Jonathan's way. "Now we can do this the easy way. Because, do you remember that night you were on your knees in my office, Crane?"

He sputtered furiously when Bolton had the horrid nerve to bring up that humiliating, painful reminder - and revealing it to Elizabeth behind them. He looked past Bolton's shoulder to see her face cracked, mixed with anger and heartbreak. "You bastard!" Jonathan spat, turning his attention back to the much taller man, his shirt getting grasped in a handful, lifted off his feet so he was eye level with the menacing eyes before him.

"Oh, that's right. I just now revealed your dirtiest secret to the little girlfriend." He chuckled wickedly, that grin getting wider, flashing with the obvious thought of having him back in that position and in front of Elizabeth this time, so she could watch the man she loved reduced to performing the sick deed for the other man who was doing everything in his power to try and break them apart. Bolton lowered him back to his feet. "And that makes it that much fun. She'll get to stand by and watch the second time around..." He turned around to look at Elizabeth, giving her that same grin, and Jonathan saw this as his opportunity to grab the gun. He swept the weapon out of Bolton's hand, the other man looking back in surprise only for Jonathan to bring his leg up and crack it between his legs. Bolton doubled over and groaned in pain; this time Jonathan brought down the barrel of the gun on top of Bolton's head, sending him to the ground again.

"Elizabeth!" he shouted. She ran over to him making it around Bolton and took his hand, allowing him to drag her up the stairs so they could join the others on the deck so they could get out of here alive. Joker had planted a bomb which would go off in a few more minutes or so. _We don't have much time,_ he thought as they finally reached the top.

"Lizzie, Jonny!" Harley shrieked, standing before the site of the ladder, having chosen to wait for them. _Stupid girl!_ "Hurry up; this place is going to blow in four minutes!"

"We're coming!" Jonathan yelled back, pushing Elizabeth forward and keeping his hand on the gun. Harley had already begun to go down the ladder, and her best friend was on the way now. Jonathan sighed as he thought of Lyle Bolton going up into smoke and flames with this place so they would all be left alone now -

And then there was something sharp and a loud _thud_ digging into his lower back, followed by an indescribable pain and Elizabeth's shriek.

 **Oh God no Jonathan! :O Cliffie, as much as I know some of you hate those. But the next and final chapter is underway. Stay tuned!**


	18. Elizabeth and the Scarecrow

**It's the end, ladies and gents. :D Like the other stories before this, I'm happy with how this came out, and thank you nicsnort and Vytina - and those who reviewed - for all your support.**

Chapter Eighteen

Elizabeth and the Scarecrow

Elizabeth leaped over the edge of the ship and back onto the deck just as Jonathan fell to his knees, groaning in pain and clutching onto her desperately. She felt around his back, taking care not to pressurize whatever it was - and then she felt the blunt handle of _her pocket knife._ She'd either dropped it by accident amidst the confusion or Bolton had taken it when she wasn't aware. Either way... _he stabbed him...he stabbed my Jonathan...in the back...oh, God, there's blood...!_

She felt the blood alright, hot and sticky on her fingers, slowly oozing out in a pattern she couldn't pay attention to. She couldn't let him die this way; that bomb was going off soon, and they had to get off this boat soon, but the monster was advancing their way, laughing cruelly.

 _The monster who...degraded my Jonathan and the others._ Jonathan never told her that Bolton forced him on his knees that one time to give him oral sex, but he had his own good reasons not to tell her, so she couldn't be mad at him - but she was more than mad as hell at the colossal pig over them now.

"On his knees now, like he was -"

"Save your breath, Bolton!" she burst out through her tears. "You'll never win, not when this boat will go off and take us with it. Either way, you fail. You lose. You're no better than the scum you abused. I saw how you treated them all, including this man in my arms." Jonathan was whimpering now, clutching onto her. "Forgotten and scared, without hope or compassion."

"And that's what makes me think you're just as crazy as they are! You actually CARE for those creatures!" he spat.

"Because they're more human than you think, but misunderstood. They were cast out like soil, just messing up the perfect garden which withers anyway in the event of time." Elizabeth speaking her mind made her feel stronger with each second passing - each second ticking by, and the bomb's detonation time came closer.

"Elizabeth..." Jonathan's mouth was near her ear, low enough for Bolton to not catch but enough for her. "...pull it out... _kill him_..."

Her heart thumped with the knowing fear he would bleed to death if she pulled it out, but Bolton was grinning like a skull as he was sure he would die a hero to himself instead of living to find himself a new villain of Gotham. But the truth would get out once the others got away. But Jonathan was bleeding and would die if she didn't do as he asked. _He's suffering enough, but he'll die, too, if I don't get him to the hospital soon._ Trying not to sob with him, Elizabeth reached behind and enclosed her fingers around the knife's handle, whispering softly to him.

"I love you...and I'm so sorry."

And she pulled the knife out swiftly but painfully for her lover.

Jonathan's screams were ear-crushing speakers to her ears but rich music to Bolton's. He threw his head back then and let loose a proclamation to the skies. "Ah, to relish the screams of pain from the Master of Fear like he has done to all of his victims. It's just like taking a slice of pumpkin pie on Halloween and Thanksgiving together." He meant it as a joke, but Elizabeth's blood boiled, and exploded like a lava core when he continued. "Lizzie, do you know how good he was on his knees that one time? Just because he was a man didn't mean he couldn't work his mouth on a long piece of meat..."

She snarled viciously and tossed her pocket knife the same way a ninja would throw a _shuriken_ \- a kind of boomerang inspired weapon, and very lethal - and struck the gold part she wanted: his most vulnerable place which a man valued most. He howled and fell to his knees then. Elizabeth stood quickly and brought up her boot to kick him in the face and knock him onto his back, then reached down and yanked her knife out of his crotch - she hoped she'd cut his member off in the process - and picked up her gun, too, putting them back where they should go before returning to Jonathan's side and helping him stand. Knowing he wasn't strong enough to go down the ladder with her, Elizabeth saw they had no choice but to jump overboard. "On three," she said as they stood up, and he leaned into her and held onto her; she was taking the lead for his sake. "One...two..."

They jumped on three, at the same time the bomb went off, blowing up the whole deck and hull of the ship.

~o~

 _He was cold and wet, shivering violently and unable to feel his limbs. He knew he was loaded onto a stretcher, but his consciousness was slowly in and out; he could still hear the voices and feel needles pricked into his skin to make sure the medicine flowed through to keep his internal and external signs going. "His vitals are alive, but not for long."_

 _"How long do you estimate?"_

 _"An hour, less if we act now. His internal organs have barely been missed, but we need to move. He's losing too much blood."_

 _"Should we let him die?"_

 _"God in heaven, NO! We're doctors! It's our job to save lives regardless of what wrongs they've done."_

 _"Then shut off this conversation and let's get to work in saving every internal organ we can and stop the bleeding. We have a young lady outside desperate to see him make it through."_

~o~

The hospital wasn't even busy, and she knew why. Nobody cared about Jonathan or any of the others but only a small handful, including the doctors currently in the ICU trying to save his life. Edward and the others were explaining to the police what had happened, and Dr. Bartholomew was here in the hospital with her. Elizabeth wrapped her arms around herself and crossed one leg over the other and shivering uncontrollably with fear for his life; Bruce's comforting hands on both her forearms didn't help either. He'd been called by the hospital regarding the situation.

"He'll be fine, I know it," he kept telling her over and over, but she couldn't hear him nor would she ever listen.

"No, Bruce!" she snapped, wrenching herself free. "I won't be calm when I know that wound was fatal enough to -"

"Dr. Dodson? Mr. Wayne? Dr. Bartholomew?"

"Yes!" They jumped up at the same time at the sight of Dr. Samuel Winchester, an older gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair and a mustache whom Elizabeth recalled Bruce telling her that Pamela Isley poisoned Harvey Dent over the extinction of a wild rose for the building of Stonegate, and Winchester treated Dent long before the accident leading to the birth of Two-Face. "What's the news, Doctor?" Elizabeth asked, trying not to be too overwhelmingly desperate.

Winchester held up a hand, his mouth in a stern line despite his kind tone. "He's going to live, young lady. We've managed to stop the bleeding. But he has yet to come out of sedation for a couple hours. Other than that, he's recovering and ready to be taken back to Arkham once it's finished."

Elizabeth fell into Bruce's arms, clutching onto him and crying softly; it felt heavy inside, though. Jonathan was going to live. He was going to live, and after he recovered from his injuries, he would go back to Arkham where she would oversee he got the hell out of there for good and they could move back to Georgia, where the house was hers officially and she would make it the perfect love nest for two...and hopefully more to come. "Well, in that case, I'll leave you three alone," Dr. Winchester spoke with a nod. "But you can return in the morning if you wish to see him again, Elizabeth."

"My dear, I have a feeling there is more than what you're allowing anyone else to see," Bartholomew spoke as soon as the physician was gone. Elizabeth raised her head and wiped her tears away.

"What are you saying?" She knew what, but she didn't want to say it directly.

He laughed and patted her cheek. "Oh, I knew all this time there was something between you and Professor Crane. He's never made it so far with his previous doctors because of the inability to fully trust anyone, given his expertise as a psychologist himself. But you, however, you've changed something in him. He's lived alone his whole life as far as anyone's known. He doesn't deserve to spend the rest of his life at Arkham; he deserves to have a second chance, which is why I am one of the few to actually show enough compassion for our patients and help them reenter society despite the challenges." He smiled at her with the same fatherly smile that he'd given her on her first day of the job.

"I saw that in you the moment you walked through our doors, however..." She sucked in a breath. "...I believe a compassionate young woman like yourself deserves better surroundings than the dreary asylum I run."

Elizabeth allowed her jaw to slacken slightly. _Oh, I knew it. Since I'm close to a patient more than in the way it should be..._ "Are you firing me?"

To her surprise, Bartholomew laughed and shook his head. "Oh, no, not at all. You're far too blessed for that. I'm merely saying that once the chance of Dr. Crane recovering and leaving Arkham for good arrives, you should transfer someplace else where you're not at risk of the dangerous criminally insane. Take him with you and help him return to that without the chances of ever winding up someplace similar to Arkham again. Make sure he stays out of trouble," he finished with a chuckle.

Elizabeth smiled at him, then looked behind her to see Bruce, her best friend since she was a child, sharing it with her. _He's right; Arkham was never the place for me. I came here as an opportunity to get away from home, from my past...and instead I found someone who helped me face my fears and move on. Someone rejected from the world for his unique and original mind regardless of how terrible his ideals were. He loves me for who I am, and I love him for who he is. This is the fairytale I've been living even when I never thought of it often._

~o~

"So, how does it feel returning to this place?" Edward Nygma asked as he drove the clowns back to the place he had left for good. He wouldn't be going back in there now, not when he did nothing wrong only to get tangled up with his Rogue friends in a rescue mission. Now that Jonathan was going to survive the stab wound from Bolton, Edward could get back home to his fiancee and his life. Diane was going to rant at him for sure.

"Ah, it feels good to be back," Joker answered, leaning against his seat in the back of Edward's new car, getting a scowl from Harley as she turned around and glowered at him. Jervis, who was also in the back, shrunk as far away from the clown as possible.

"I came all the way and risked my life for my best friend - as did Professor Crane - and you had the nerve to tag along when I broke up with you!"

Joker lowered his arms from behind his head and leaned forward, glaring at her and ready to smack her down. "Harley girl, I am a man, and you know it! I still love you, my little wench, but sometimes you gotta take a break and focus on the next plan of action!" Jervis whimpered and turned his face away when Joker turned and growled at him. "As for you, Hatter, once we get inside, you're going to pay for sneaking around with my Harley. I look forward to having the laugh of my life by breaking you down in front of her so she knows what it's like to cheat. Then she'll welcome me back with open arms."

"Don't forget you did the same to her, clown," Edward reminded him, cracking a grin and getting the same face in return, only to be saved by Harley.

"By bringing hoes into my bed and threatening the kindest, sweetest man who ever treated me like a real woman while you were gone from me, breaking my heart all for WHAT?!" She reached into her back pocket, baring her teeth. "You had this coming for a _long_ time, puddin'!"

Jervis' shrieks and Joker's roars of pain at the gunshot below his waist - same place Elizabeth stabbed Bolton - drowned out Edward's protest of " _No, Harley_!"

~o~

He thought he'd never survive long enough to be with her, here, on this day that November of the same year. It had only been five months since Lyle Bolton was killed, and only yesterday he'd been released from Arkham and moving back to Macon with Elizabeth. She'd spent all the time preparing for their return and permanent stay.

Now they were getting married. Today.

He'd never dreamed before of finding anyone like Elizabeth Dodson in his life, a woman he could trust with his life as well as his heart. Everything today was exactly as she'd told him she wanted for her wedding day, from the open-roofed ceremony space and romantic lightings, the whole event taking place at the local water gardens, so the only flowers present were in the pond separating them from their guests - water lilies of white with yellow stamens, and soft pink ones also with yellow. _Nothing more to take away from the attention to her and I._

She was a true modern Belle in a elegant yet sexy mermaid-cut, ruched satin dress with crystals over the sweetheart neckline and to the left side as she walked down the aisle. Brown curls cascading down her back, held half up by unseen hairpins; her ears and neck fired up beyond tradition with radiant rubies. In both hands was a bouquet of stunning red roses and crystals, handtied and accented with a silver butterfly. Elizabeth had been right when she didn't want to look like a princess; she wanted to be an independent woman but still have that fairytale feeling. And she'd been right.

Jonathan long never believed in God or any religious icons, but to hear the preacher recite from the ancient book was amazing on its own, also making Elizabeth tear up in front of him and their guests - among them being Dr. Bartholomew, Jim Gordon and his daughter Barbara, Bruce Wayne and his wife Susan, with their "son" Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Joan Leland, Edward and the new Diane Nygma, as well as Jervis and Harley recently paroled from Arkham - and Harley's left hand bearing a vivid rectangle ruby framed with diamonds.

Since his release, Elizabeth got him to be her partner in their upcoming private practice she'd gotten opened up, the whole event planned along with this wedding with help from Wayne and the family. Who watched the vows exchanged and the rings, finally sealing their union with a kiss and Jonathan sweeping her up down the aisle and carrying her out until the reception, which had been set up in another part of the gardens, more indoors and heated for the coming darkness.

He paid not much mind to their guests when he and the new Mrs. Jonathan Crane made their grand entrance and began their first dance as husband and wife, only focused on his new bride and the overwhelming happiness he was feeling, how blessed he was after his whole life alone, laughed at and rejected. She'd said he could trust her, that she wouldn't force him to do anything he didn't want to, and she'd been right. "Jonathan Crane," she whispered to him, the music making it impossible for the whole world to hear. "I love you."

"Say it again." The candles of their simple but classic centerpieces radiated her eyes alight and matched his.

"I love you."

Jonathan let his lips part for a breath of air. "Ah, Elizabeth..." He sighed. "...nearly dying makes a person realize many things. Remember the day I asked you to be mine while I was still at the hospital?"

"I'll never forget that day." Her smile was as sweet as the flowers surrounding them, their guests, and the whole space: lavish satiny deep crimson roses, exceptionally soft cream with a darker heart, and lovely blends of pink and white lilies, all filling the air with an enticing scent that made the blood pump in his veins.

"I kept thinking of the ugly night I...you know," he added in a lower voice as they continued their dance. "And I'll never do that to you again or betray your trust in any form ever again. You don't know how grateful I am that you've made me feel like a better man and brought light into my dark life. I've loved you since the moment I first saw you."

She giggled and leaned her head upwards, mouth meeting his. "And now that we're married and have a successful career on the way _together_ , how do you feel about babies?"

He laughed. "Oh, yes, all the babies you want. I'm an old man, and I don't have much time left."

"Oh, hush," she admonished with her finger to his lips. "You're not _that_ old."

"You flatter me too much, my love."

"Try thinking of more than just flattery, Jonathan Crane. I mean it when I say it."

"I'll do my best, Elizabeth Crane," he promised, leaning down to kiss her again. In her warm, loving brown eyes, he saw the promise of a future he thought he would never have again, resulting in bitterness and vengeance. Now, in the joy of holding Elizabeth in his arms - his new wife - Jonathan decided this was all he'd ever ask of life.

 **Oh, God, I can't believe this story is finished. :D Nevertheless, I'm proud with how it turned out. I am happy to know you all did, too. Elizabeth was a dream come true for me; I love characters like her.**

 **Nearly the end, the flattery between husband and wife was in thanks to one particular sequence in chapter 16 of one of my favorite stories, "The White Veil" by AceMate. One of the best I ever read, too. It's here on the site, if anyone isn't familiar.**

 **Not too long ago, I published a completed fic called "The Hellbound Heart", a grim tale of love, sex and death, tying Batman Begins with the horror classic Hellraiser. If anyone is interested. :) My new Re-Animator fic I started is "For a True Love", a blend of the Jeffrey Combs classic with elements of vampire mythos that is quite the challenge for me, but I enjoy challenges.**


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